


Stranger In A Familiar Place

by Ruffled_Phoenix_Feathers



Category: Naruto
Genre: Curse Kishimoto and his lack of decent worldbuilding, F/M, Female Uzumaki Naruto, Genderbending, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2018-07-18 05:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 45,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7300990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruffled_Phoenix_Feathers/pseuds/Ruffled_Phoenix_Feathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They knew her. The way they spoke to her, the way they looked at her; Hashirama, Tobirama, and Madara knew her. One moment of inattention on the battlefield and Naruko quickly found out why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've had really bad writers block for years now and this is the first thing I've posted in a long time. Excuse any timeline issues with the Clan wars, I'm taking creative liberties because the lack of an official timeline I've been able to find. I'm also working on characterization for Tobirama, he's who I'm struggling with the most. From what I get from the anime he's serious and practical but not needlessly cruel considering the time period he grew up in.

Standing in the remains of his clan’s shrine, with the four resurrected Hokage standing in front of him, Sasuke had no idea what to expect. The sight of the Third, the one whom ordered Itachi to slaughter everyone and become a pariah, sent a familiar strum of anger through his bones but he ignored it. Like he also tried to ignore the First’s...eccentricities.

One look in the Fourth’s direction had his eyes widening slightly. The resemblance was too canny: the spiked hair, the same exact coloring from the hair and skin, to the eyes, the same high cheekbones as _her_ , there was no doubt in his mind that he was looking at Naruko’s father. He wondered if Naruko knew her hero for practically her entire childhood, the one who sealed the demon inside her, was her father?

Trying to push thoughts of her away - they were always, _always_ a distraction and one he could not afford right now - he focused on the Kage as a whole.

After a few minutes Sasuke was left watching the Second Hokage warily as his resurrected body went to the wall of the shrine and placed a hand on it. After experiencing the power he and the First Hokage had directed at him, he knew he was no match for them. The Nidaime, maybe, if he was alone, but he couldn’t take on both. He was glad that the First seemed to be able to control his brother, he really didn’t want to know what would have happened if the Second had lowered his finger - he had healthy self-preservation instincts, after all.

Once alerted of the war and the Kage sensing Naruko’s chakra - powerful, warm, enhanced by the fox but not being controlled by it (did she gain complete control?) - fighting against two equally as powerful chakra’s, things changed. They were miles away but could clearly be felt by even non-sensor types. There were still occasional explosions that shook the earth even where they were but nothing came near the village.

The Second’s face as he stretched out his senses and the almost desperate way he pushed his body against the wall made curiosity rise again but he stayed quiet. The First and Second seemed to be especially hostile towards him personally. They were good at hiding it, but he was good at reading people.

“Tobirama, not yet,” the First said, turning his body to face his brother.

The Second turned angry red eyes at his brother, his jaw clenched tight. “Nii-”

“She will be fine, you know this,” the First said again, trying to reason with his brother. “You think I don’t want to help her?”

Sasuke had no idea who the Second Hokage was so eager to go to, but Orochimaru’s control over his body was the only reason he suspected the man was still here.

Orochimaru got the Kage’s attention back and Sasuke listened as the First told his tale. All the while he was aware that both the First, Second, and Fourth Hokage’s were itching to head to the battlefield, no matter how composed they seemed. And throughout listening to them, he couldn’t help but feel something was being left out in their tale of the events of the past.

 

* * *

 

Naruko winced as she received the memories from the clones she had supporting Gaara’s company and she took the time she had while she was running to meet the fake Madara as she processed the memories of the clone facing the _real_ Madara.

The real Madara Uchiha had been resurrected and was practically annihilating the shinobi in the alliance single handedly and he was mostly using taijutsu! He managed to turn experienced shinobi’s attacks and weapons against each other with ease and one of his ninjutsu took almost a dozen shinobi to counter. And bringing down freaking meteors! They were outclassed against him big time, so many of them died in that.

It was the look on the Uchiha’s face when he first saw her clone that was sticking out in her mind. The slight widening of his eyes when he first saw her and then the creepy smile he gave after. Her clones had seen the knowing, almost fond smile he had given when she had held off the wood style and he had been talking with the resurrected Tsuchikage.

The way Madara had looked at her clone was pushed out of her mind as she made herself focus on fighting the resurrected jinchuriki. She had to trust Gaara and Tsunade knew what they were doing. Like Itachi said, she couldn’t do everything on her own.

Even with all the revelations she was faced with during the fight against the biju and the now revealed Obito, she was grateful. She was grateful she had the chance to actually talk with other biju and their hosts, and learning Kurama’s name, all of their names, made her happy. Her relationship with the fox practically turned on it’s head within the span of a few minutes, but they were working together now, and she felt that this would give them more of a chance to turn the tide to their favor.

Madara quickly came back to her mind when he appeared on her battlefield. She was angry and worried at his arrival since it meant that he had defeated Tsunade-baa-chan, Gaara, and the other Kage. Worry for them on top of Kakashi-sensei, who was spacing out and torn up over Obito, was distracting her but she still kept a close eye on Madara, even as he pissed her off and goaded her with his comments.

When her clone attacked him with the Rasengan and it was absorbed by his gunbai, in that moment of stillness when he and her clone were inches apart before he redirected her attack back on her, he said something to her clone all the while his piercing Rinnegan was pinned on her real self under Octo-pops. When she received the memory after it was dispelled, she was angry again but also scared.

_“I found you, Naruko.”_

Naruko had the uneasy feeling that he wasn’t talking about her being a jinchuriki and accomplishing his goal. The way he said those few words seemed too personal, too...excited to just be about finding Kurama’s jinchuriki.

In fact, every interaction she had with the Uchiha seemed too personal. He seemed to know exactly what to say to piss her off. He knew how to counter her moves, even seemed to expect them, never seemed surprised by what she threw at him. It made her wonder how he seemed to know her so well, especially since some of her moves she had just figured out only hours before when she and Kurama agreed to work together. She couldn’t shake the feeling that he was toying with her, waiting for something specific before he actually made his move.

His gaze seared into her throughout her fight with him, even when he simply sat out when she defended Kakashi-sensei and focused on the Ten Tails. He never said anything to her like what he had said to her clone and she pushed her confusion aside at Kurama’s urging to focus on the battle. Whatever happened in the next few hours, she knew she didn’t want Madara to get his hands on her.

Of course, things didn’t work out like she wanted.

When reinforcements arrived the other’s closest to her noticed his attention and stayed near her while Madara and Obito did their best to destroy the shinobi and get her to join them

She wondered why they were trying to get her to join them when they knew she knew they had to kill her to get Kurama. Anyone with an instinct for self-preservation wouldn’t take that deal, and while her’s was debatable, she did have one.

With her ability to feel negative emotions now, she sensed nothing of the sort coming from the Uchiha Patriarch. There were no negative emotions coming from him other than occasional flares of annoyance. She could feel that she was getting under Obito’s skin with every word and action she made, but Madara was almost eager and excited as he let Obito try to sway her.

Unfortunately for Madara, his way of trying to get her to join him involved killing Neji. While she had come close to breaking, thanks to Hinata she rallied herself and the army for another attack (something she noticed didn’t surprise Madara in the least). 

When Madara pulled out and she sensed a torrent of anger, hate, and excitement she extended her senses to try and feel what had him so excited. She felt four powerful sources of chakra and two she recognized as her father and after some digging in her memory, Sarutobi-jiji. She knew the other two strongest must be the other Hokage and she extended her search even more and recognized Sasuke’s chakra with three others, one of which she immediately knew to be Orochimaru. Peeved at the Sanin’s survival, but knowing the Kage would help once Sasuke got what he wanted, she focused on holding Madara and Obito off until they arrived.

Unfortunately, the other Kage’s revival seemed to set something off in Madara and he turned his attention back on her tenfold. His eyes were burning into her, a major distraction even while he himself sat out of the fighting.

Once she felt the Kage, plus Sasuke, make their way to the battlefield, she knew they would finally get the help they needed. She enjoyed seeing her father in real life, not just a construct of chakra in her mind, and couldn’t help but smile at his entrance, knowing where she got her dramatic flare from.

She was in awe at seeing the Shodiame and Nidaime but both of them stared at her with something too similar to joy and recognition for her to dismiss it, the Second Hokage especially. They seemed worried, almost, when they saw the state she was in - exhausted, arm limp and bleeding, and her clothes torn up beyond salvaging - but that didn’t make any sense. They had never met before, both being long dead before she was even born.

Kurama took notice too and she could hear him muttering to himself as he tried to figure it out. Three important figures from the past seemed too excited to see her and three was enough for even him to realize something else had to be going on here.

She completely ignored Sasuke and his declaration, spitting a strand of hair out of her face angrily (all the getting tossed around her hair had fallen out of it’s braid hours ago, it was a tangled mess around her but she couldn’t take the time to put it up).

She did not have the time nor will to deal with him at the moment. She may have been trying to get him home for almost four years but that didn’t mean she didn’t hold a grudge against him for everything he had done. She considered him her brother and her best friend but he was a complete and total ass, for all that she was relieved he was back with them.

The fight took an unexpected turn once the Kage sealed the Ten Tails behind the barrier. Madara had somehow made a clone and it was the one facing off against Hashirama’s clones. She had no knowledge of this until he had snuck through the Shinobi forces with lightning speed and snatched her into his arms before whipping her away to the area where his clone and Hashirama’s dispelled after a final clash.

The other Hokage were stuck in one place due to the barrier and Madara had clones holding everyone else back while he held onto her. One arm wrapped like a band around her waist, pinning her arms down, while the other pressed tight across her chest and held her shoulders. He pulled her close, hands like iron holding her back against him, crushed against his armor. She was stretched across the front of his armor, feet dangling, so close that if she turned her head her lips would have brushed his ear. She tried to struggle loose but she had no leverage in this position and in terms of raw physical strength, he had her beat.

She noticed seals laid out in a pattern similar to her old seal with a spiral in the middle but had no idea what it would do. Kurama, able to see through her eyes, apparently did and he went silent and she could feel him focusing on gathering his chakra. 

Confused and panicking, she used the chakra she had to try and fight her way out of his grip. He managed to bat away her resistance with no trouble. She was tired after hours of fighting and sharing her chakra and she couldn’t get any leverage even after trying to use his body to push off of. She couldn’t bring her legs far enough up with the way he had her waist and arms pinned. The most she could do was try and kick at his knees and shins.

She bit back a scream, her struggles stopping instantly, when she felt his chakra start flowing into her body from the points they were connected. It burned within her as it gathered at a point on the back of her shoulder and flared painfully before settling.

The hand by her throat grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled it away and she felt his breath on her back as he looked down to where his chakra had settled. Apparently finding what he was looking for he pushed her in the seal.

It immediately started glowing and draining her chakra at a rapid pace. Kurama tried to help, using the chakra he had gathered and pushing it out to keep her from being drained dry. Within seconds she fell to her hands and knees as the seal started glowing and whatever was on her back burned along with it. 

No one could get through Madara’s clones and she could hear everyone yelling and fighting but all her senses focused on Madara as he kneeled outside the formation closest to where she was. She managed to ignore the growing exhaustion as the seal took her and Kurama’s chakra to speak to him. “Wh..at...are you...doing?”

With his back turned to everyone but her his face changed, almost becoming soft but still holding the same eager light from earlier. “I’m following history.”

Now too exhausted to hold herself up, she collapsed onto her stomach, face turned towards him. She was confused beyond belief and couldn’t move as Madara started adding his chakra to the seal. She was too exhausted to scream as whatever was on her back synced with the seal, throbbing in steady waves.

Kurama was strangely silent and wasn’t helping her but any thoughts of asking him what he was doing fled as the seal started glowing and morphing around her, flowing into a spiral centered around her, looking almost like Kakashi’s Kamui. Naruko felt Kurama pull on her mind the way he had when she let him take over and she offered no resistance as she finally blacked out.

 

* * *

 

Tobirama and Hashirama knew what would happen the second they felt Naruko’s chakra after they had been resurrected. Hashirama knew that Tobirama’s strong desire to get to the battlefield stemmed from a lot more than defeating Madara and protecting the village.

His younger brother wanted to see her.

Once Tobirama had felt her chakra he had changed, but only Hashirama was able to tell. When Naruko had been pulled back to their now current time, the warmest part of Tobirama that the blonde spitfire had surfaced had been buried and his little brother had become cold and serious, only softening for his genin team, Tsunade, him, and Mito. Just feeling her chakra again had already softened his brother enough that Hashirama could stop him from killing Sasuke. He wanted to beat the boy’s face in for what he did to Naruko too, but for once he was the one thinking logically.

They had all left Sasuke in the dust when the Ten Tails’ chakra went crazy and the sound of mass destruction carried even to their ears. He had looked at his fellow Kage as they all raced forward and had shaken his head. Only Naruko could wrap so many powerful and historic figures around her little finger.

Minato had torn ahead, showing his impressive speed and improvements on his little brother’s technique while Hashirama, Tobi, and Saru were at most five minutes behind. He didn’t know what to think of Naruko’s father, knowing events had been stacked against him at Naruko’s birth but still a little mad at everything he had left her alone to deal with, though not on purpose. He decided to reserve judgement for now, knowing Naruko held no grudge against him.

When they arrived, Hashirama saw the longing and pain on his brother’s face when Naruko looked at him with no recognition and he felt much the same. He also buried some guilt, knowing Naruko would be scared beyond all measure within the next few minutes.

Both Senju brothers and Madara had all shared one look when they had arrived on the field - a very hate filled look in the case of Tobi and Madara, but agreement none the same.

They would not stop what would happen, to let the past play out, and then they would settle everything when she was pulled back. That’s why, under the guise of a pathetic fight, Hashirama’s clones and Madara set up the seals so they would safely take Naruko and bring her back at the correct time. The shinobi alliance was too focused on Naruko and the Juubi to really pay attention to them so they were able to do it with no problems.

Hashirama was glad they were trapped holding the barrier, though. Once Madara had grabbed Naruko it had been a very close call in both Tobirama and Minato’s case to not leave their positions and go to her. 

Thinking on what was about to happen made him have to hide a smile as he remembered their time with Naruko. She had been one of his best friends and he had been one of the only ones she had told the truth to, about almost everything. 

He couldn’t predict anything anymore, though. He didn’t know how much time would pass here before she came back but he at least knew Madara would, if not stop his plans, slow the pace of them until then.

The shinobi were panicking and giving in to fury and panic at the sight of Naruko vanishing and he knew they needed to be told what was happening before they tried to take on Madara.

He ran his eyes over the gathered shinobi and smiled again. He may have been the one to unite the clans to build Konoha and establish the framework for the Five Great Nations, but it was no surprise to him that Naruko could unite the entire shinobi world behind her.

Hashirama spared a thought on Madara’s missing accomplice. He was the only wild card. There was no telling how much he knew and he seemed to be in a rush with the Ten Tails. He could count on Madara waiting for Naruko, but the other one may not. For now he was occupied somewhere else, but Hashirama would be prepared the second he revealed himself again. It was up to them to see if they could control him and the Ten Tails until she came back. He seriously hoped not too much time passed here but time-space seals were tricky.

Keeping an eye on Madara and the Ten Tails, he called the allied shinobi’s attention, flaring his chakra in their direction, especially the teens, to get them to stop. The shinobi froze at the feel of his chakra and turned to him. “Hey! She’s fine, I’ll explain everything, do _not_ attack, is that clear?”

 


	2. Chapter 2

Kurama knew what those seals were the second he saw them through Naruko’s eyes and he realized all the strange looks Naruko was getting throughout the battles were because Madara and the Senju _did_ know her. They had met her before and were following the history they knew.

When the preparations were complete he pulled Naruko’s consciousness into her mindscape and took over for the pull back in time. No human mind, no matter how strong, is able to handle the trauma of time travel so he pulled her as deep into her mind as he could to shield her while he took over, keeping her mind and body intact until the seal ran its course.

He knew he would have to keep her from trying to change the past too much. She was sent back to keep the past consistent, not change it drastically, but he would have a hard time trying to stop her from going after Madara. How ever long she was in the past, nothing would be resolved among the people she met until she came back to her time.

Based on the emotions they had felt coming from the Senju brothers and Madara, he was betting on her spending a lot of time in their era. The water brat especially seemed to be attached to Naruko.

With any luck, she would convince the Sunju brothers to train her. Any advantage over Madara was needed since that snake Kabuto had resurrected him in his prime with all the abilities he had gained up to his real death. Since they seemed to care for her so much and had not been surprised to see her after their resurrection, at some point they find out or she tells them her situation.

Kurama felt the pull of the seal finishing and made sure Naruko’s mind sustained no damage. He had barely noticed the effects of the seals, too inhuman to be overly damaged by it. He mostly felt the rapid chakra drain.

When the seal deposited them, it was calmly. The pattern of seals simply appeared on the ground like an unravelling spiral and her body was deposited in the same position as the seal finished. There were no explosions or massive releases of chakra to draw attention.The movement reminded him of Hatake’s and Uchiha’s sharingan, the Kamui, and he guessed the seal was based off that in some way. 

He had to give credit to Hashirama and Madara; together, they created - recreated? Blast it, tenses were going to be a pain in the ass - a seal that would fulfill their purpose with little damage to Naruko herself and not draw attention to her. Her body had sustained damage only in the case of chakra burns and severe chakra exhaustion but those weren’t permanent. 

Kurama carefully pushed Naruko’s body up, senses aware for any enemies. They were either in the Warring States Era or the early founding of the village, both still very hostile and suspicious times. He kept Naruko suppressed, not hard when she was still unconscious, ready to make sure she was at least out of the open and near familiar territory before letting her have control.

He trusted his instincts enough to believe they were actually very close to where Konoha is or will be. They were completely surrounded by forest and he sensed no nearby chakra signatures or the strong emotions inherent to humans. He knew this could change at any moment and Naruko couldn’t be caught using his chakra, even if it was him using her body. There were no jinchuriki or use of the biju until Hashirama freed him from Madara to be sealed and found the rest of his kin to distribute them among the villages. 

Naruko met the Senju and Madara at some point and he resolved to at least find the direction of the brothers, if not them personally. Their age would give him a time period and they were a much safer option than taking her directly to Madara. 

Thinking on the risks of the time period, he ripped Naruko’s leaf symbol off her head and took off what remained of her kimono style top with the Uzumaki swirl on the back. He pulled out the storage scrolls Jiraiya had given her and searched through them until he pulled out her plain dark orange jacket with black lining that had no symbols on it. Now she was in torn up, black shinobi pants with mesh armor under a black shirt and the jacket. No identifying symbols. 

He took out the rest of the clothes from the scroll, pulling out all the kimono style tops mimicking Kushina’s style and anything else that had the Uzumaki or leaf symbol on it leaving only one outfit and her sleepware and undergarments. He hid the headband and clothes deep under the roots of a tree instead of putting them in the scroll. She would be searched when she was found and that meant the clothes in her scroll.

Now that Naruko wouldn’t be seen as anything other than a clanless orphan he turned to look at the seal. It showed no sign of fading away, the dark black markings standing out like a brand against the grass. He tried to angle Naruko’s head to look at her shoulder where Madara had done something. He saw the edge of some kind of seal but couldn’t see all of it. To test his suspicions, he focused a miniscule amount of his chakra to it. 

The small seal didn’t visibly react in any way but he felt a small pulse. The seal on the ground reacted with another pulse. 

The seal Madara had burned on Naruko’s body was a timer and it was filled with large amounts of Madara’s chakra that he had probably been gathering since he had been resurrected. Until that chakra ran out, Naruko would be in the past. When the time was up, the seal would activate the one on Naruko and pulse until Naruko came. 

The only purpose of the second seal on Naruko was to key the seal specifically to her so only she could be pulled through time. Madara’s chakra in both seals acted as an anchor, pulling her to a specific time periods as long as Madara’s chakra was active - meaning to a time when he was alive. A quick check of the primary seal confirmed that Hashirama’s clone that had helped lay it out had also put some chakra into the seal network. Hashirama’s chakra in the seal made it so Naruko would be pulled back in time to when both of them were alive, since Madara was worse than a cockroach. 

It was too risky to leave such a dangerous seal out in the open but the only way he could hide it would draw attention. Weighing the risks was no contest; the seal was too dangerous, especially with Madara around.

Kurama crouched on the edge of the seal and quickly gathered his chakra, infusing it with the chakra of the nature around him. He quickly layered it over the seal, moving quickly but carefully, knowing his chakra was potent enough to be felt by any sensors within a wide radius of him with the amount he was using. He used his chakra to cover the seal much like a genjutsu, hiding it from sight. The nature chakra, which also had the benefit of masking his own, would feed the chakra and keep the seal hidden until he released it himself. The cloak would be undetectable because it just felt like nature and the seal would stay hidden from any prying red eyes.

Kurama felt two powerful chakra’s make a beeline for his direction and recognized them as the Senju. Those two were some of the best sensors ever born and he was relieved that they were the only ones coming.

He ran Naruko’s body over to the next clearing he could find, not wanting to draw their attention to the area where she had appeared in case they could sense any kind of disturbance. When he felt their chakra was close enough that they would find her within a minute, he receded into Naruko’s mind, letting her body drop like a stone.

He used his senses to still see what was happening around Naruko while she remained unconscious. When the brothers arrived he analyzed them, trying his best to determine their ages while they assessed the area around Naruko for any traps. 

OooO

Hashirama and Tobirama ran quickly through the forest towards the direction they had sensed a very powerful, potent chakra. The times were too dangerous to leave a possible threat with that level of chakra uninvestigated. No one other than them seemed to have sensed it since they felt no other chakra approaching or following them. 

The only reason they had sensed it in the first place was they had been on patrol and with Tobirama’s chakra in use, he had sensed the first sign of it.

The source of the chakra vanished suddenly and Hashirama and Tobirama sped up, keeping their senses alert for the slightest fluctuation of chakra. The potent one was gone but there was still another source in the same direction.

They soon arrived at a small clearing, no more than a slightly larger gap between a couple of trees. Crumpled on her stomach at the base of one was a young girl, not even twenty, seemingly unconscious. They both extended their senses towards her, making sure she wasn’t faking before they approached her. Her chakra was very weak but was calm and still, no fluctuations giving her away. She was completely unconscious.

Hashirama signalled Tobirama to follow him to the ground and they stayed still, crouched near her in case she woke up. Hashirama was the one to move first, reaching out for her shoulder. “I’m going to see if she has any clan symbols on her.”

Hashirama was careful when searching her body, both searching for her pulse and turning her over to look for any symbols. Her pulse was steady and strong so she was in no danger of death and the only injuries were relatively minor. Her clothes were a little torn up but he didn’t see a symbol for a clan on her. 

Seeing a weapon pouch he opened it, finding some kunai and shuriken and two small scrolls. He pulled both out and opened them finding them to be storage scrolls marked with what each part contained. There were clothes, rations, medical, weapons, and one that just said spare supplies spread out on the two scrolls. The strangest thing on the scrolls was a small, hand-drawn picture of a toad on the bottom of both but it was nothing overly worrying.

He turned to his brother after setting the girl down on her back. “She’s alive, no injuries but some minor chakra burns and a severe case of chakra exhaustion. No clan marks on her clothes and her hair’s too bright to be a Yamanaka. What do you think?”

Tobirama approached her now, staring at her face more intensely than what was normal for this situation. Hashirama couldn’t fault his starring; the girl was beautiful.

Her face was still slightly round from youth but it is easy to tell she would only be more beautiful as she got older. She had strange whisker marks on her cheeks that he knew weren’t scars but that amplified her high cheekbones. Her lips were a pale pink, full and slightly chapped and her skin was a light golden tan which brought out the richness of her hair color. Her bright blond hair was tangled and hanging loose around her. It looked like it had previously been in a braid but had fallen out haphazardly. The strands went down to her elbows and her bangs were spiked much like Tobirama’s, only her’s went past her eyes with slightly longer locks framing her face. 

Her clothes were interesting, especially for a shinobi. She was wearing black shinobi pants tucked into ninja sandals with bandages wrapped around her legs from just below her knees to the top of black sandals. There was a weapons pouch on her right thigh on top of some more bandages. He had felt that she was wearing mid-sleeve mesh armor under a simple black sleeveless shirt. The strangest thing about what she was wearing was the dark orange, long sleeve jacket with some pockets on the inside and outside. She was wearing no other armour, something especially dangerous for a shinobi in these times. The most he had felt was the mesh under her shirt when he turned her over.

Tobirama had crouched beside him and reached out to touch the girl’s arm. His younger brother’s eyes widened and shot to him and Hashirama nodded to show he had felt it too. 

When in direct contact with her skin he had felt her chakra levels. Even in the severe state of exhaustion she was in now, they could both feel how large her chakra reserves were, especially since there were so few kunoichi and the few there were had no where near the reserves this girl had. 

“Her reserves are too large to be a civilian that someone trained; she naturally had large reserves growing up. Whoever trained her, trained her because they sensed this in her. She could possibly match me at her full strength,” Tobirama eventually shared. “She’s also at least half Uzumaki.”

Hashirama nodded, having figured the same thing.There was a distinct tinge to her chakra that all the Uzumaki carried but the lack of red hair and clan symbol confused him. If she was indeed Uzumaki, even just half, the clan would have taken her in, especially with the risks of a woman traveling alone. She either did not know of her heritage, was in hiding, or she was searching for the clan herself. The Senju and Uzumaki were close allies and he had never heard even a whisper of the girl’s existence, so they must not know she exists. 

Uzumaki or not, he had to think of the possibility she could be a threat. “It’s too risky to take her back to the clan or the Uzumaki without knowing anything about her.”

Tobirama narrowed his eyes as he thought. “We have the outpost to the east that has enough supplies. We can set her up there and keep her contained until she wakes and we can question her. I can watch her and notify you when she wakes.”

Hashirama thought it over and nodded. He knew the outpost, having built it himself. It was basically a cabin where they went when they wanted to be alone and was fully stocked and secured with seals. Tobirama was there the most when he wanted to be alone or develop and practice jutsu so he would be the better choice to stay there. He would come when he could but he had to lead the clan and couldn’t leave for undetermined periods of time without preparations.

Tobirama bent over and picked up the girl, carefully placing her over his shoulder, careful of his armor, so they could move quickly. Hashirama packed the girls supplies back in her weapon pouch and took it with him, following his brother.

With the speed they could travel they arrived at the small cabin in ten minutes. It was small and had one visible story, made of solid walls and only three small windows. There was one visible door but known only to them was the underground tunnel that was an escape route should the place ever be found and blasting their way out wasn’t an option.

The inside was only two rooms. There was a sleeping area that was only a small but comfortable futon in the far corner by a fireplace and a basic kitchen near that. There were two chairs and a table but nothing else as far as decor went. The other room was the bathroom, the only place where there were walls inside, but if the door was open, whoever was in there could see the entire cabin.

Tobirama set the girl down on the futon and Hashirama went to the table where some scrolls and ink were. He grabbed some fresh ink and a brush and knelt beside the girl again. His little brother had pulled up her jacket and mesh sleeves, baring her arm, and with deft strokes he quickly had a chakra suppression seal drawn on her arm. It wouldn’t stop her from recovering her chakra but it would cut her off from being able to use it.

He turned to his brother who was checking the contents of the kitchen and the wood supply. “How long are you good for?”

“There is enough food for a few days plus hunting, same with the wood.” Tobirama said as he shut the cabinets. “What about you?”

Hashirama laid a hand on the wall and focused on checking the security seals. “The seals are undisturbed and functioning. I will try to come everyday to check on her progress. Depending on how much Uzumaki is in her, she should be up in a day or two.”

Tobirama eyed the unconscious girl again. “Are we going to contact them?”

Hashirama rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh. “We should probably wait until she wakes and we can question her. Find out who exactly she is, where she comes from, and whether she’s a threat before we tell them.”

Tobirama nodded, eyes not leaving the girl. Seeing a rare chance to tease his serious brother he grinned, ambling over and tossing an arm over his shoulders, ignoring his little brother’s glare. “You can’t take your eyes off her, Tobi-kun. I get it, she is rather - “

“Shut. Up.” Tobirama said in a reproachful manner, glaring darkly at him and shrugging off his arm.

Hashirama dropped his head and shoulders, sulking and mumbling “Can’t even have a bit of fun with my own brother,” until Tobirama shoved him. 

Visibly annoyed Tobirama pushed him in the direction of the door. “Just go back to the clan. Come when you can tomorrow.”

Following along with his brother he spared one last look to the unconscious girl before leaving. as he was bounding through the forests he hoped the girl wasn’t a threat. She was so young even if most shinobi around her age were practically veterans.

OooO

Naruko came to knowing she was in her mindscape. When she opened her eyes, she screamed and jumped. Kurama was crouched over her, piercing red eyes watching her. Hand over her heart, she glared up at him. “Don’t _do_ that! It’s so creepy, you watching me from so close.”

Kurama rolled his eyes. “What do you remember?”

Naruko furrowed her brows, trying to remember the last thing that happened. She was fighting Obito and Madara, the four Edo Tensei Hokage had shown up, and Madara had…

She jumped up with a screech. “What did that bastard do? What did he mean by following history?! And why the hell are you so calm?!”

Naruko turned to Kurama for answers, wondering why the fox was lying so calmly, hands (paws? he has five fingers and his upper body is humanish, so - hands) crossed and his head laying on them. Kurama sighed: a full-body, long suffering, why does this always happen to me, kind of sigh.

She got those a lot.

“You remember how you noticed all the weird looks from Madara and the Shodaime and Nidiame? Like they knew you?” Naruko nodded, wondering where he was going with this. “It’s because they _do_ know you - or did, rather.”

Naruko stared at Kurama blankly. “They died decades before I was born,” she explained in a slow voice, as if speaking to a child. _He’s lost it. All those years locked up have destroyed his mind, he’s completely lost it_ , she thought.

Kurama looked up while taking a deep breath, the way she had seen Iruka-sensei do many times when she was being especially difficult. “Madara placed you in a seal that acted like the other Uchiha’s Kamui. It used your chakra to send you back in time. Madara placed something on your back, remember?” Naruko frowned as she stretched an arm to touch the area she remembered feeling Madara’s chakra condense on her. “It’s a seal that acts as a timer, basically. When you’ve spent however long here the seal is timed for, it will pull you back.”

Naruko was silent, letting this sink in before her eyes suddenly widened. “I can’t stay here! We were barely holding on, the Juubi was transforming, they _need me_! We have to go back!”

“Unless you’ve suddenly become a seal master overnight and can override Madara’s seal on you, we can’t. Not until the seal times out.” Kurama explained. “I don’t know how much time will pass there while we are here. Any kind of space-time travel is hard to manage. A minute could pass there while we spend months here.

Naruko glared up at him in a huff. “How do you know all this anyway?”

“You gave me control when blacking out, baka.” Kurama snapped. “Your mind wouldn’t have been able to take time travel so I pushed you to let me take control. I barely felt the effects and I hid the seal under a genjutstu after learning what I could from it. I also made sure to hide anything you had that had identifying symbols. Your headband and most of the clothes with the Uzumaki symbol are hidden in the forest.”

“Why’d you do that?” Naruko grouched, upset at the loss of her headband.

“Madara sent us back in time to the Warring States Era.” 

Naruko’s eyes widened. She didn’t pay a lot of attention in school but she did know basic history. “That far? How was that possible?”

Kurama growled. “Madara is one of the strongest shinobi alive and he had decades after his supposed death to learn new tricks. There’s no telling what else he can do.”

Naruko swallowed, remembering the memories of two meteors being pulled out of space onto the Gaara’s company. “Okay, but what does that have to do with my clothes and headband?”

“The Uzumaki Clan exists in this time period and they have no knowledge of you. Better for you to be considered clanless than try to claim relation to a clan. For the first time, it would be safer if you used your father’s name of Namikaze instead of Uzumaki,” Kurama advised. “Your headband I hid because they would have asked about any kind of symbol you might have had on you.”

Naruko nodded, taking in what she understood but then something he said stood out to her. “‘They?’ Who’s they?”

“There was no way to hide the seal so even the Sharingan couldn’t see it without using my chakra. Powerful sensors sensed me and came running but I finished and retreated back here before they came, though not before I saw who they were.” Kurama paused here, taking a slow breath, a hint of a growl heard deep in his chest. “Luckily, it was not Madara or any of his ilk. The Senju - Hashirama and Tobirama - are the ones that have you.”

“So I’m unconscious wherever they took me?” She asked.

The fox nodded. “I made sure to bring you here when your mind started waking. You need to create a convincing story to tell them so they will not kill you.”

Naruko jumped at that. “Kill me? They’d really do that?”

Kurama’s red eyes bore into her own. “The era we are in is a time of suspicion and conflict. No one gave out their family name for fear the person you met was an enemy of your clan and would kill you.”

“That’s why you want me to use Namikaze,” Naruko realized. Then she scratched her cheek absently. “How am I supposed to think up, let alone remember, a story good enough to convince them?”

“The best lies are one’s that have the truth.” Kurama said. Then he seemed to realize who he was talking to and revised it. “It will be easier to remember if it has some truth in it.”

Naruko nodded. “That makes sense. So I can still be an orphan...how can I explain your chakra?”

Kurama answered quickly, having thought up some ideas while waiting. “You can say your village was attacked the day you were born by me. I’m running wild in this time until Madara tracks me down. Your body absorbed some of my chakra but your parents were killed.”

“That’s easy enough to remember. I think I’m getting the hang of this.” Naruko went down on her knees, sitting back on her heels. “I had no relatives to take me in and because of the chakra I absorbed and the marks on my face, people ignored me. I reminded them of the attack too much.” She paused here, trying to swallow the lump in her throat before continuing. “A wandering shinobi was passing through my village and sensed the chakra in me.”

“He trained you as a shinobi to control the chakra and you left the village with him.” Kurama realized something and added on. “The senju might have sensed the Uzumaki chakra in you so you can say he was taking you to the clan to see for sure when he was killed protecting you.”

Naruko nodded, finding the made up backstory pretty easy to remember. “He told me to find the Senju Clan or Uzumaki Clan before he died and I was searching for them when I was attacked.”

Kurama ran the story over in his mind. There were some holes, but it was close enough to her past that she should remember it easy enough. “As long as you can keep them from prying, it should hold. We created a way for you to use my chakra but that will draw attention to you if you use it too much.”

She frowned and crossed her arms. “What attacks can I not do?”

“Try to avoid Sage Mode.” The fox answered. “Not many shinobi outside of Hashirama know how to use it in this time so you can’t say Jiraiya taught it to you. You can’t use your clones,” he realized.

Naruko’s arms shot to her sides, fists clenched. “Why not?!”

“Tobirama invented the shadow clone. Unless you tell them the truth - which you better not -” he added with a dark glare, “and got them to believe you, Tobirama and those he’s shown are the only ones who know the technique. It would raise suspicion if you suddenly popped up out of nowhere able to use it. The only way you can use your clones is if you miraculously get Tobirama to teach it to you.”

Naruko growled, gritting her teeth. “This sucks. That means I can barely use any of my rasengan, hell, any of my jutsu at all!”

“You’ll have to deal with it,” Kurama said firmly. “Now, can you remember the story? Once you leave here, you’ll wake up and then there’s no screwing up.”

Frustrated, but not having a choice, she grit out, “I can remember it...Just...give me a minute to wrap my head around everything.”

Kurama stared at his host, seeing the emotions building in her heart. She needed a way to focus for however long she was here, something to take away her anger at her predicament. _Damn brat has made me soft._ “Naruko.” When he had her complete attention he continued. “Use the time you have here to train. You’re you,” he continued wryly, “If you could get through to all the tailed beasts - me especially - then becoming friends with the Hokage brats should be a piece of cake. Train with them, get Hashirama to teach you seals aside from the basics the hermit taught you. Do that and get stronger here so you can face the Madara back in our time better prepared.”

Naruko stared at him quietly for a few seconds, muscles tight with tension and emotion. Slowly, her body relaxed and she smiled a small, real smile up at the fox. “Thank you, Kurama.”

The fox plopped his head back down on his arms, face turned away from her. “Just get out of here and wake up already.”

Smile turning to her familiar foxy grin, she cheekily saluted him before closing her eyes and focusing on waking up.

OooO

A day and a half after he and Hashirama had found the girl, she woke up. Tobirama had spent the majority of that time thinking of her and her possible origins. While an Uzumaki without red hair was possible, there weren’t many, that particular gene being especially strong. The only reason he and his brother believed she was one was because the Uzumaki had a distinct tinge to their chakra only powerful sensors can feel. Their bloodline of longevity, resilience, and special chakra was unmistakable. 

The only question was how could she exist? The Uzumaki Clan was close-knit and very family oriented. If someone in the clan had a child, it would be known and the child taken in, given to a family if the birth parents were dead. There was almost no way for the girl to have not been found. The Uzumaki in her was too strong to be diluted from generations, one of her parents was a powerful full blooded Uzumaki.

When she woke and was questioned, they would find out the truth. If her story checked out, they would take her to the Uzumaki Clan, if not, he and Hashirama would figure out what to do with her.

Throughout her time unconscious, Tobirama mostly just let his thoughts wander while he had shadow clones watching the perimeter, lost in his thoughts.

It was an hour before sunset the second day after they found her that she woke. It helped confirm the Uzumaki blood in her was strong; they always recovered very quickly from serious injuries and chakra exhaustion. The chakra suppressing seal wouldn’t come off of her though, until it could be proven that she was not a threat.

He had been sitting beside the futon against the wall, staring at the small fire he had started, one leg bent with his elbow resting on it while the other was stretched out. He had noticed she was waking by the fluctuations in her chakra; it went from slow and steady to gradually spiking and when he looked over at her he saw her starting to move.

 

Tobirama had been prepared for a slow awakening, consciousness returning slowly due to her low chakra. He had not been expecting her eyes to shoot open revealing stunningly bright blue eyes before she shot up and made for the door. It was only due to his reflexes and incredible speed that he was able to pursue her instantly, tackling her around the waist as she stepped outside.

They landed on the ground hard, him on top of her, and she immediately started struggling. He was surprised at the energy and strength she had considering how exhausted she should be and the fact that she had no access to her chakra. She must have been moving on sheer will power.

The girl managed to get one leg free enough to manage a curving back kick, driving her heel into his back and knocking him to the side. He still had his grip around her waist but without his weight as an advantage to hold her still she started squirming fiercely, arms and legs flying and trying to get under his guard. He managed to get onto his knees, securing the girl in his arms with one arm around her waist and the other in a loose hold around her neck. She managed to get her legs in front of her but he kept her body too low for her to push herself up with them. The girl was trying to get the leverage to get her feet or knees under her and was alternating between clawing his arms, elbowing his stomach, or trying to scratch his face.

“Will you..stop! I’m not going...to hurt you!” He forced out when he narrowly avoided getting his face kicked. She had incredible flexibility to almost kick the top of his head, it was almost a complete vertical kick. 

When she tried to do it again he quickly caught her leg under the knee with the arm around her waist. He had to strain against her to pull his arm back and pin her leg to her stomach. He hoped she tired herself out or the awkward positioning of her limbs would get to her, he was trying not to hurt her. He was glad he had removed his armor hours ago, otherwise she could possibly have seriously hurt herself on it, not to mention this would be even more awkward.

It seemed her adrenaline finally wore off because her movements were slowing and her leg was trembling. He held her securely until she went completely still aside from her heaving chest. Her head was hanging forward so he had no view of her face but she finally seemed to calm. He refused to let go of her but he did soften his grip the slightest bit. “Are you ready to listen now?”

The girl tensed at the sound of his voice and he let her turn her head enough to look at him. He was stunned at the color of her eyes; a rich blue, with shades ranging from bright electric to dark sapphire with a violet ring around her pupils. Her eyes widened upon seeing his face and he saw the surprise clearly in her eyes and on her face.

They had apparently been staring at each other longer than he thought because he was actually startled when he heard someone clearing their throat. Both he and the girl tensed, heads whipping around to the source of the noise. Hashirama was standing at the treeline, a huge grin on his face. “Am I interrupting something?”

Ear’s burning, and seeing the girl’s neck flush dark red, Tobirama realized what the way he was holding her looked like and slowly let her go, embarrassed but still cautious. He kept one hand on the girl’s elbow as they both got to their feet, noticing when standing that the top of her head came just below his chin. He also noticed the almost awed looks the girl threw him and his brother that she tried to hide.

Hashirama walked to the door of the cabin, stopping a few feet from it. He noticed his brother had a light genjutsu over the Senju marks on his armour and wasn’t wearing the cloth on his forehead. “What’s your name?”

The girl looked back and forth between them, the hand of the arm he wasn’t holding playing with the end of her - now even more messy - hair. Awake and moving, it was easier to see she was in her mid to late teens, only three or four years younger than him at twenty-one. “My name is...Naruko.” Her voice was slightly husky for a girl but still soft and feminine.

Hashirama smiled gently, trying to put her at ease. “Well Naruko, I’m Hashirama and that’s my brother Tobirama. We mean you no harm, we just have some questions. How about we go inside?”

Naruko looked around them, taking in the surroundings and he figured she was trying to decide whether or not she could make a run for it or trying to find any landmarks she may recognize. With her chakra sealed until his brother removed the seal, he hoped it was the later. After she had finished her searching, she looked back at him and his brother and nodded. Tobirama let go of her elbow but stayed close behind her as he followed her back to the cabin, Hashirama moving aside so Naruko was the first one in.

Once inside and the door closed, Naruko made a beeline for the futon, almost collapsing on it. He and Hashirama dragged the two other chairs so they were in front of her and sat down, not too close as to intimidate her too much, but not too far away either.

Naruko ignored them for a while, settling her body gingerly back against the wall. From the state of her chakra when they found her her body must be incredibly sore and exhausted, the little skirmish earlier not helping matters. Her eyes went to the table where her weapons and scrolls were and then she yanked up the sleeve of her arm, glaring at the suppression seal standing out in stark contrast to her tan skin. That glare moved up to them as she yanked her sleeve harshly back down.

“It won’t stop you from recovering your chakra,” Hashirama said. “It only cuts off your access to it. Your levels were dangerously low when we found you but until we know whether you are a threat, that seal stays on. Will you answer our questions?”

Naruko seemed to calm a bit at the explanation for the seal. “I will answer what I can, but can I have some water first?”

Hashirama smiled, trying to keep Naruko calm and compliant. “Of course. Tobirama, if you would?”

Without a word he did what he was asked, letting his brother take the lead to get through the questioning as peacefully as possible. While considered an adult, she was still incredibly young, not to mention a woman alone, and Hahirama’s dislike of violence against children was coming into play. He would do what he could to get the answers they needed without hurting her.

Kneeling down, Tobirama handed the glass of water to Naruko, both of them staring again when their fingers brushed. Awake, he could admit she was very beautiful, which made the fact that she was alone even more worrisome. Aware of his brother behind him, he stood back up and went to his seat.

After giving her some time to drink Hashirama leaned forward to put his elbows on his knees. “Now Naruko, what is your last name? We will not harm you when we find out unless we are provoked to do so, but we can’t let you go without knowing.”

Tobirama focused on her body language and chakra, attentively monitoring both for any signs of deception. Her hands clenched on the glass but she answered without further prompting. “Namikaze.”

She was not lying so she probably didn’t know her heritage, unless she was searching for them. He had never heard of a Namikaze so she was most likely from a civilian family or an orphan. 

“What are you doing here?” Hashirama asked. 

“I’m looking for some people,” she answered vaguely. Hashirama was silent, simply staring at her to let her silently know to elaborate. “I think they may be able to help me.”

“Are you an orphan?” Hashirama questioned, already suspecting the answer.

Naruko took another sip of water. “Yes,” she said simply. “From the day I was born.”

He shared a look with his brother. It would explain why she didn’t know she was an Uzumaki if her parents were killed at such an early age, but that doesn’t explain her training. “How are you trained?” Tobirama asked.

She set the glass down on the floor this time. “It’s kind of a long, confusing story.”

Hashirama reclined back in his chair. “We have time.”

Naruko met both their eyes and sighed. “Well, for starters, my village was attacked by Ku- Kyuubi the day I was born. Well,” she added, ignoring their surprised stares, “less attacked and more in the way of wherever he was going.”

“How old are you?” Tobirama asked. It wasn’t a rare occurrence for entire villages to be wiped off the map when in the path of a biju. The Kyuubi especially seemed to be hostile and filled with hate so most just tried to avoid it.

Naruko frowned. “That depends, how long was I out?”

“Almost two days. It’s October 11,” Hashirama said.

“Huh,” she simply said. Her brows furrowed a bit. “I’m seventeen then. My birthday’s the tenth.” Tobirama noticed she seemed too confused. The day you are born wasn’t something too confusing, but he was right about his estimate of her age.

“Continue with your story, please,” Hashirama ordered gently.

“Oh, right.” Naruko rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. “My parents were some of the people that died that day trying to get out of his way until he passed. I don’t know how it was possible but I somehow absorbed some of his chakra, that’s where these comes from from what people told me,” she explained, touching the marks on her face.

Hashirama held up and hand, silently asking her to stop. 

Tobirama nodded at his brother’s look, both of them focusing their sensory abilities more deeply on her chakra. The went deeper than her powerful, warm chakra until they came upon a source of very potent, dark chakra. A very large amount of it. It confirmed her story, but a newborn babe simply absorbing a biju’s chakra was unheard of. 

Needing to hear more of her story, Hashirama waved her on, urging her to continue.

She seemed a little annoyed by the interruption but she was also watching them cautiously, most likely searching for any sign that they might attack her after what she just revealed. “The villagers took me with them when my parents died and when the Kyuubi left, they went back to rebuild. I was told it didn’t take long for people to realize that I had absorbed the chakra and they feared me, and that fear turned to hate,” she explained in a calm tone, something surprising considering what exactly she was saying.

“The only people who would take care of me as a baby was an old couple but they died when I was four so I don’t remember them. after that no one would take me in so I lived in the small house they had had alone. I guess the chakra and the marks reminded them too much of those they had lost.

“The only reason I knew my name was because an old man and his daughter, who ran a restaurant, knew my parents and were nice to me. Everyone always called me demon, or brat, or that kid and ignored me, keeping their kids away too.”

Tobirama could see Hashirama’s habit of becoming depressed starting to kick in, though he seemed to be trying to focus on her story. Tobirama didn’t bother snapping at his brother this time. Her story was distressing, showing the ignorance and cruelty of people to an innocent child. Naruko was delivering the story with the tone of someone used to such treatment, like it no longer affected her, but that kind of treatment from such a young age would leave emotional scars.

Naruko smiled sadly, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them as she continued. “When I was ten, some old wandering ninja was passing through. He told me he felt the powerful chakra within me, told me why everyone hated me. He said that I had dangerously high chakra levels and to leave me untrained would run the risk of the me losing control or someone finding me and using me. I left the village with him and he trained me as we wandered. He took care of me.”

By the way her eyes dulled and the softening tone of her voice Tobirama knew this man was dead, fairly recently too. “What was his name?” he asked, softening his voice.

“Jiraiya. Just Jiraiya,” she said. “He taught me how to use chakra, how to fight and defend myself. He said he knew some clans that could help me with the fox’s chakra but he died a few months ago protecting me. He told me to find the Uzumaki, Uchiha, or Senju Clan and that they would help me. I was trying to find them when I was attacked and used up my chakra. It’s only when my levels are low that the Kyuubi’s chakra comes out and I never remember what happens.”

Tobirama turned to his brother when she was done. Her story fit the little facts they knew, though how someone with demonic chakra could wander for years unknown was a mystery. It would also make sense for this Jiraiya to search out the three clans she mentioned. 

The Uzumaki were sealing masters that could most definitely seal the chakra and Hashirama with his wood style and sage chakra could tame the chakra as well. The Uchiha, with their sharingan, would have been able to control her if she lost control. Whoever had found her first would have gained a great advantage in the wars going on and Tobirama was immensely relieved that they had been the ones to run across her. She was a living weapon most wouldn’t hesitate to use, even against her will.

It also made more sense for her to be an Uzumaki now. With their bloodline, resilience, and strength it was entirely possible for her to live with that chakra inside her. If any clan could contain a tailed beasts chakra safely, it was that one.

“I’m going to talk to my brother outside, please don’t try to leave.” Hashirama said, standing up and putting his chair back at the table. Tobirama followed his lead. “I’m going to take your weapons as a precaution,” his brother added, snatching the weapons and scrolls up as he passed.

Naruko uncurled, stretching her legs out to lean back against the wall as she turned her head to stare at the dying fire. “My chakra’s sealed and I’m outclassed by you both. I’m not dumb enough to try and leave with you here and no way to defend myself.”

Hashirama nodded at her and the both of them left the cabin, making sure the door was closed behind them. They had been questioning Naruko longer than he had realized; it was twilight when they went outside, only the sound of crickets and the nocturnal creatures waking greeted them. 

Once out of her sight, Hashirama’s aura became depressed but he remained serious, knowing now wasn’t the time for his usual antics on a normal level.

“She was telling the truth or she’s a complete sociopath and an amazing actor,” Hashirama sighed. “Her chakra kept steady and her body language was normal for some of the things she revealed and for someone in her situation.”

“Her story makes sense, though with her teacher dead and a village that is most likely glad she’s gone, there is no one to corroborate it.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Even if we did manage to find the one village that was in the Kyuubi’s path seventeen years ago and it be the one in her story, they all have probably forgotten she was there or will pretend like it.” Tobirama reasoned. The people of that village would have been relieved she was gone for good.

“Do you think we should tell the Uzumaki?” Hashirama asked him. 

Tobirama thought it over, taking in all the facts and possible risks. “At the very least have them send Mito or her father to see what they can do about the chakra. If they want to take her in, they can ask her. We can tell her who we are since she is safest with us for now,” Tobirama said, thinking of Madara and how dangerous the man might be now without his brother. “With you, if she loses control she can be stopped so it would be best for her to remain with us - hidden - until they can get here.”

Hashirama nodded, leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed. “Your absence will be noticed if you remain away for much longer and we need to keep knowledge of her as quiet as possible. At most, you can stay another two days, after that I’ll leave a wood clone with her. If I send a message in the morning to the Uzumaki, it would take at least a week for them to arrive with a small party.” 

“She needs to be put on a probationary period if we take her to the clan. Even if she has no loyalties to a clan it doesn’t mean she’s not a threat. How long do you think we should keep her chakra sealed?” Tobirama asked.

Hashirama frowned, glancing back at the door to the cabin. “She might grow to resent us for the loss of control. With her past, the ability to defend herself and control over her own body must be driving forces, so not too long.” Hashirama mused. “She said it herself, the only reason she’s being so cooperative is because she knows we can overpower her easily and she has no way of defending herself.”

Tobirama had an idea that could either work wondrously in their favor or cause them to lose her. “Can you alter the seal so she has access to some of her chakra? Not all of it by any means, but enough to use basic jutsu?”

Hashirama smiled, catching on. “Showing her a sign of goodwill and giving her a reason to believe we don’t mean her any harm. She could possibly stay of her own will and be more relaxed and open around us if she doesn’t feel completely defenseless.” Hashirama pushed himself from the wall. “I’ll do it now, but then I’ll have to be heading back. Try not to get into a situation like what I saw when I first arrived, we’re trying to be friendly, but not _that_ friendly,” Hashirama teased.

Tobirama grunted, refusing to rise to his brother’s baiting. He could already tell he would have some bruises from her targeted struggling. 

He followed his brother back inside to see Naruko hadn’t moved, only staring into the fire. He again found himself staring at her eyes, having never seen their like before. The reflection from the burning embers in her eyes made the violet flecks he had noticed earlier turn red. Those eyes turned on them when the reentered.

“So what’s the verdict?” she asked, pushing herself up from the wall and crossing her legs.

Hashirama sat on his knees in front of her and Tobirama followed. Her eyes widened as she saw the change; them lowering to sit on her level instead of above her like before. 

Hashirama smiled at her. “First off, I’ll tell you our whole names. I’m Senju Hashirama but I have a feeling you already knew that, didn’t you?”

Tobirama watched Naruko’s eyes widen and knew he and his brother had suspected right. She had seemed to recognize them on sight when Hashirama arrived earlier and she had been unable to hide glances in their direction when mentioning the Senju Clan.

Naruko flushed, ducking her head. “I didn’t know if I should say it or not. Jiraiya told me what he knew the leaders of the clan’s looked like. Silver hair and red markings are kind of a give away,” she said nodding in his direction. “Even if you don’t come from a clan, passing shinobi aren’t quiet when talking about their enemies.”

Hashirama nodded. “True enough. These are dangerous times and we don’t fault you for not saying anything. I am going to contact the Uzumaki Clan, they are close allies of ours, and we will both see what we can do for you.” Naruko nodded, relaxing when she realized she wouldn’t be held accountable for withholding information. “Unfortunately, we can not trust you enough to take you to our clan. You will have to remain here until they arrive. Tobirama will stay for a few more days and then I will have a clone with you.”

“I understand,” she said. “I won’t cause any problems. Can I go outside, though?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

Tobirama couldn’t help but find the look on her face cute but he gave no sign of his inner thoughts. Something about her was endearing - he wanted to like her. “When you’re stronger, you can go with me but we will stay close. You can not leave without me or my brother’s clone, that’s non-negotiable.”

Naruko nodded, already perked up at just the thought of going outside. Hashirama held out a hand, the other going to his supply of ink. Naruko was confused, even more so when she saw what he had grabbed, but she pulled her sleeve up to reveal the seal and scooted forward until her arm was in Hashirama’s hand.

“I’m not completely unsealing your chakra,” his brother explained, already getting to work. “Most of it will still be sealed off until we trust you but I’m giving you access to enough to defend yourself with on the off chance this place is discovered.”

Naruko nodded throughout his explanation, staring at the brush making small, precise lines on her arm in interest. When Hashirama was finished and finalized the seal with a flare of his chakra, the effect was immediate. Naruko’s chakra had already recovered a great deal and even with access to a small amount, the small cabin they were in was flooded with warmth as her chakra rushed to the fore. She really did have incredible reserves and he wondered if all of it was a result of the fox’s chakra or if she had it naturally. 

Naruko’s body relaxed completely and a small smile appeared on her face as she felt her chakra again. That small smile turned into a beaming grin as she looked to Hashirama. Clearly giving her access to her chakra again was the right thing to do. “Thank you!”

Tobirama felt a small smile curling at his own lips and saw his brother answering her grin with one of his own. Her mood was infectious, her personality and emotions so open compared to what they were used to and taught from a young age.

Hashirama shifted his weight to rock back on his heels and stand up. “Well, I must be heading back. Tobirama will stay with you and I’ll send word when the Uzumaki are near. Ja ne,” he said with a wave as he left the cabin.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tobirama and Naruko get to know each other

As the door to the cabin shut behind his brother, Tobirama realized he would be alone, in a cabin, with a girl he found attractive, for a few days. Tobirama was practical, and not one to try to delude himself when it comes to his own feelings and his reactions to those feelings. He knows and has acknowledged the strong physical attraction he harbors towards Naruko, and he knows he is further intrigued by the mystery and puzzle she presents.

He also knows he has been more considerate and less severe with his treatment of her. If she hadn’t had the distinct feel to her chakra that meant she was Uzumaki, then most likely she would have been killed or more harshly interrogated.

She must be aware of that on at least some level. With Hashirama gone, the silence that enveloped them was loaded enough to officially be called awkward. Naruko was playing with the end of her hair and staring avidly in any direction that was not at him while he openly observed her.

She really was fairly beautiful. Not the classic, highborn beauty that he usually saw among the more prestigious clans, but a more natural beauty. Though the whisker marks on her face made her seem more exotic, and emphasized her cheekbones, it was her personality that added something more to her, that made her stand out. Awake, her features were filled with life and warmth, and she was so expressive with every part of her.

She cleared her throat nervously and he nodded to encourage her to speak.

“Uh, sorry about earlier. I freak out when I wake up somewhere I don’t know.” She peeked at him out of the corner of her eyes, embarrassed by her actions.

He nodded, having no hard feelings. The sooner he could get her more comfortable with them, the better. “It’s understandable; anyone would react badly to waking up somewhere strange.” Naruko seemed to relax some but he noticed her eyes were fixed on the door that led to the bathroom. “You can clean up if you want. Here,” he tossed her the storage scroll she had had that had clothes in it. “I’ll fix something to eat.” 

Naruko left to the bathroom with a small “Thank you” said in his direction. The cabin was connected an underground water source the rest of the clan used so they had running water, though nothing more than a sink to really wash up with.

Tobirama fed the fire and got it roaring again then set to work making some fresh stew, something that wouldn’t take too long since he had already made some earlier.

He really didn’t know what to do or say now that questioning her was over with. He knew he could do some more digging by probing into her past, get her to give some more details other than the vague ones she had already given. He knew part of his job by spending the next few days here with her was to try to find holes in her story or any lies she may have told, as well as to get a feel for who she was.

Naruko came out after a few minutes and he turned around to see she had washed up and changed her shirt to a fresh black one with no sleeves, and changed into some black capris instead of full length pants. Her dark orange jacket and the bandages that had been wrapped around her legs were draped over one arm, her shoes held in her hand. She had gotten her hair wet under the sink; she came out with it hanging damp around her face. Less tangled and crazy her hair went to mid-back and was a mix between curls and spikes, falling around her body in a golden cascade.

Naruko smiled at him when she noticed his gaze and he nodded back, turning back to finish the food. He watched her set her clothes down by the futon out of the corner of his eye. She pulled out the sealing scroll, sealing her other clothes and the bandage wraps into it. It was as she was sitting up and pulling her hair over her shoulder to comb her fingers through it that he saw the edge of another seal on the back of her right shoulder as her shirt shifted.

He narrowed his eyes at it, but the majority was still covered by the shirt. The symbols he could see were at the wrong angle for him to read them clearly. The fact that she hadn’t mentioned this seal was a mark against her, though.

And it was a seal, not a tattoo. Very few shinobi got tattoos, and those that do put them in places that are easily covered. The most common use he has seen is a summoning tattoo, used to quicken the process of the summoning jutsu. His own markings are a result of his increasing knowledge and ability with different chakra types and his development of new techniques. They were a distinguishing mark, and though most shinobi recognized each other because of their reputation and previous battles, it was still too much of a risk for someone in Naruko’s position. In her situation she couldn’t be afforded secrets, and she could still have to be killed depending on what Mito had to say.

Putting the seal out of his mind, he looked again at what she was wearing. Her clothing was another thing he was trying to get used to. Most women wore a kimono, since most women were kept confined to their family houses. The few women who were trained as shinobi occasionally wore pants, but most wore kimono that were designed specifically for freedom of movement, since pants would draw unwanted attention for the type of missions they carried out.

He focused back on the food, finishing it up and setting the table. Naruko finished up with her hair and left it hanging down her back.

“Naruko.” When he had her attention he nodded at the table and she pushed herself up and joined him. 

They ate in silence, not as awkward as earlier, but not exactly comfortable either. Without conversation, the ate quickly. When they were both done eating, she helped him clean up and they both sat back down at the table when they were done. There wasn’t much in the way of recreation to do here, no scrolls or anything potentially dangerous was ever left here. All that really left them with was conversation so he decided to be up front. “What’s the seal on your back?”

Naruko’s head snapped up to stare at him, eyes wide, then her brow furrowed. She pulled her shoulder forward and craned her head around to see the edge of the seal and when she turned back, he almost immediately knew what she was going to say would be a lie. There was a look of fear and anger on her face, though, that kept him quiet.

“U-uh, oh...That one. Jiraiya was good with seals, he put it on me to help repress the chakra. It was only supposed to be temporary until he got me to safety.”

Tobirama knew with one look at Naruko that she knew he didn’t buy it but he stayed silent, content to wait until the Uzumaki arrived to let them take a look. He was slightly above average when it came to seals, and was still learning, but he trusted the clan of renowned seal masters to know what it was better than he would. 

At least he knew what she looked like when she was lying; she was horrible at hiding her tells, so he knew she had said mostly the truth earlier.

She was so much more open compared to anyone else he was used to interacting with. The people in his clan regarded him with respect, but they weren’t so upfront and honest about their emotions. Even the women in his clan and the few he met outside of it were - not necessarily cold - but he was aware that many were pushed to approach him to improve their social standing and to find a strong husband to protect them. There was always an undercurrent of manipulation with most of the people he conversed with. Naruko wore her heart on her sleeve, and it was as refreshing as it was disorienting.

Tobirama figured now was as good a time as any to try and get a feel for who she was. “Do you hate them? The people from the village you were born in?”

Naruko blinked, staring at him blankly, fingers frozen from where she had been tapping them on her arm. “What?”

He reclined back in his chair, crossing his legs. “I’m trying to get to know you. We’re going to be stuck here for a few days and there’s not much else to do.”

Naruko mirrored his pose, only she crossed her arms over her chest. Her body language was closing off, getting more defensive. “And you decided to start with that instead of anything else? Not my favorite color, favorite food?” He shrugged in answer and she sighed, but he saw a small quirk of her lips. “How about a deal? We take turns asking questions. If you can’t tell me things because of the situation I understand, but you answer what you can.”

Tobirama saw no harm in it since she understood there were some things he couldn’t say. “Okay, but first you answer mine.”

“You’re persistent, aren’t you?” She asked, rolling her eyes. “No, I don’t hate them. Not anymore. When I was little, when no one would tell me why I would get kicked out of shops or parents told their kids to stay away, I did. I wanted to get revenge on them for treating me that way, for letting me be alone.”

“What changed?” he asked quietly, honestly curious.

She smiled, her eyes distant. “I met people who saw me for me, not as a reminder of what they lost. They showed me what it was like to have people to care for me and once Jiraiya explained everything to me, I understood them.” She paused, her eyes glazing over for a few seconds before they focused back on him and she smiled sadly. “I wish them no harm. I’d protect that village with my life because it’s where my few precious people are and they have people they care about there. I wouldn’t wish the pain of losing their precious people on them.”

Tobirama was silent, absorbing what she said. It was hard for him to imagine that kind of life without coming out jaded and hating the world. If he had been in her situation he would probably have hated the village and left the people in it he didn’t care about to rot, not protect everyone in it for the sake of the few.

He nodded at her. “Your turn. It’s late so we should probably stick to only a few more.”

She leaned forward and uncrossed her arms. Her smile changed to something more mischievous as she propped her chin in her palm. “What’s your favorite color?”

He couldn’t fight back a smile of his own, tipping his head at her as he answered. “Blue. Dark blue. Favorite food?” He tossed back at her.

She answered quickly, smile not leaving her lips. “Ramen. The old man and his daughter who looked out for me had a ramen restaurant.” She paused, thinking of something to ask. “Any family other than Hashirama?”

Tobirama’s smile slowly dropped. While they had died so long ago, he still didn’t like thinking of his little brothers. Naruko seemed to sense his change in mood because her own smile fell. “We had two younger brothers, Kawarama and Itama. They died very young because of all the fighting. Our father’s been dead a few years, and our mother died when we were young, so there’s only me and Hashirama.”

Naruko was silent, and he saw understanding in her eyes. “Shinobi often die young, but something I realized is that they are never gone unless you forget them. The memory of them and what they are fighting for is always with the people that loved them.” Naruko laid a hand over her heart. “They live on in here. As long as their memory and ideals are still alive, so are they because they live on through us. Forgetting someone is the only way they can ever be gone, because then there’s not even a memory of their existence. No matter how painful the memories, I’d never let myself forget the people I’ve lost.”

Their eyes met and held. He had no idea what his face may have expressed, for once stunned speechless, but she suddenly broke eye contact and pushed herself up to go back to the futon. “Sorry if I overstepped,” she said with a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her head without looking at him. “I usually talk before I think.”

Snapping out of it he stood to follow her, catching her elbow. “No, no, it’s fine, really.” She looked up at him, an embarrassed flush coloring her cheeks. “Thank you for saying that, Naruko.” He decided to match her honesty. “Most people in this time, with all the fighting going on around us, say that children who die are just doing their duty to their clan.”

“That’s stupid!” She practically exploded, whirling around to face him and again stunning him with how deeply she felt about it. “Kids are just that - kids! They should be out playing games and pulling pranks, not fighting for their lives and then told they are doing their ‘duty to their clan.’” She wrenched her arm from his slack grip and started pacing, muttering to herself angrily under her breath.

Tobirama was left once again staring at her in shock. She reminded him of Hashirama. His brother still wished for peace, even with the clan that had killed their younger brothers and countless other members of their family. He was sick of the fighting too, but he didn’t have the same hope for peace his brother had.

He reached out and caught her by the shoulders, stopping her again. Her eyes were flashing and her face was flushed from emotion. He stared into her eyes, mesmerized by the emotions she was feeling on behalf of him and his family, complete strangers who were basically holding her against her will. He had never met someone like her and he doubted he would ever again. “You are something else, Naruko.”

He lost track of time, staring into her eyes as she calmed. She didn’t move, simply staring back into his own. It was only when the last log in the now small fire popped, causing them both to jump, that they pulled apart. 

They both cleared their throats and avoided looking at each other.

Tobirama felt frustration welling up within him. God damn it, he had never been so out of control with his own emotions and reactions, especially with someone he had just met!

He rushed to tend to the fire while Naruko fiddled with her sealing scrolls back at the futon. He knew it was near midnight so he only added two more logs back on the fire. It was enough to keep it going and keep the cabin warm until they fell asleep.

“Um, Tobirama?” Inwardly, he registered that that was the first time she had said his name, and he was determined to ignore how much he liked it even as he turned to her. Naruko was kneeling by the futon, fidgeting with a blanket she must have pulled from her storage scroll. She still avoided looking directly at him. “Where do you sleep? There’s only one futon here.”

“I can sleep well enough on the floor. While you may be better, you’re strength hasn’t fully returned, so you can have it.” He said, pointedly avoiding the thoughts of sharing the small futon with her. This day was already weird enough without those thoughts clouding his mind.

“Fine, but after tonight we can alternate.” She said, everything about her saying she would have no complaints against the fact.

He nodded his assent and they both finished settling down in a peaceful silence. They seemed less like strangers, even though they still barely knew each other. Yes, Tobirama knew Naruko’s past but that was _about_ her, not _who_ she was and he was feeling more and more compelled to find out who she was the more she talked.

She was so different, so alive, and bright, and _true_. He had never shown interest in woman other than the occasional release of tension. That was all physical. Naruko, while one of the most beautiful woman he had seen, intrigued him on an emotional level. The more he learned, the more he wanted to know why she was so different from anyone he knew.

Naruko pulled the blanket up to her shoulders, while he leaned back against the adjacent wall a few feet from her head, facing the fire. “Tobirama?”

He hummed in response, settling himself as comfortably as he could against the wall and crossing his arms, tucking his chin to his chest.

“I get that you can’t sleep much because you have to watch me, but please trust that I have no intention of running away or killing you in your sleep.” He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, seeing her smile as she lay on her side facing him. She sat up a little bit and tossed something at him. “Here.”

He caught it easily, feeling the small pillow give under his grip. He rolled his eyes a little but accepted it, already able to see that she was a stubborn one. He put the pillow behind his shoulders to cushion them against the wall and they once again fell into silence.

He knew after thirty minutes that Naruko was still awake. Both of them were staring at the fire in silence, trying to get to sleep. Tobirama had already planned to stay awake most of the night on watch but he didn’t know what was keeping Naruko awake. It was actually hard not to relax fully and start to drift off from the feel of her chakra cloaking the small cabin; it was relaxing in a similar way to Hashirama’s.

“Hey, Tobirama?”

Slightly startled at the small whisper, he turned his head to look at Naruko where she had curled up. Her eyes and voice were tired so she was close to drifting off. He hummed in response again, not wanting to break the relaxed and warm atmosphere around them.

“One more question...Do you have a dream?...Mines’ peace...I hate fighting…wanna protect my friends...”

He was shocked to silence for so long that Naruko drifted off before he could answer, finally succumbing to her exhaustion.

Her question gave him something to ponder for the rest of the night. He knew his brother had a dream of peace, of uniting the clans to make a safe place for children to actually get the chance to grow up. 

Himself? 

No idea. He had ambitions for sure. Getting stronger, creating knew jutsu and making the ones he had stronger were all things he worked at diligently. He wanted to protect his brother and clan, but a dream he aspired too?

He couldn’t think of one honestly.

Naruko was like his brother, where she aspired for peace and wanted to protect the people she cared about, but he honestly couldn’t think of anything he especially wanted for the future. He didn’t have their faith or hope for peace and reconciliation among the clans. There was too much history, too much blood and violence between them all, especially among the Senju and Uchiha.

Hashirama believed peace would be achieved through understanding each other, he believed it was only achievable if everyone agreed to follow a set of rules. Oh, if his brother could somehow manage his dream he would be all for it, protecting the village his brother dreamed of with his life. He was tired of the fighting and death same as Hashirama, he just had a more realistic - pessimistic if you asked his brother - outlook.

 

Tobirama realized something in his musing. Even if his brother’s dream came true, he still didn’t have one of his own. The only thing he could think of was to protect his brother’s dream, but he had a feeling Naruko wouldn’t accept that as an answer if she remembered her question in the morning.

OooO

Naruko woke up once again in her mindscape. “This is becoming a regular thing with you, Kurama.”

She was lying flat on her back - which was all kinds of disorienting when her mindscape had changed to this formless place instead of a sewer - with Kurama looming over her head, his eyes as close to her face as he could get. He didn’t seem too angry so she assumed he wasn’t furious but he didn’t seem all too pleased either.

She couldn’t bring herself to care overly much. Kurama was a grump, but it was like dealing with a hung over Ero-sennin or Baa-chan; she could needle them to a certain point before they snapped.

“At this rate, they’ll know the truth within a week, brat,” he grouched. “You get too personal and involved in things, but I know better than to try and get you to stop.”

She smirked. “Aw, you know me so well Kura-kun.”

The fox’s glowing red eyes practically crossed and he pulled his head back with a snort, blowing her hair around her face. “What did you just call me? No, don’t repeat it, don’t ever call me that again, you little brat!”

Naruko’s smile stayed happily present on her face as she sat up and turned around to face him. “So other than telling me how bad of a liar I am, why’d you pull me here? They seemed to buy the cover story, though I did make a few tweeks.”

Kurama forgot his nickname and turned serious. “I was listening to their reactions to your story - it wasn’t _too_ bad, but you ruined it a bit by not remembering the seal Madara placed on you. The issue is the Uzumaki.”

Naruko puffed her cheeks. It wasn’t her fault Tobirama was crazy observant. Seriously, less than an inch of it was showing from under her shirt and he wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t pulled her hair over her other shoulder. He obviously knew she was lying but he seemed to let her get away with it for now.

Then she perked up, actually excited to meet her ancestors and wondering what the problem could be. “What about them?”

“They will find the seal that holds me and they will know what it is. Your father got the framework of the seal from your mother, who got it from her clan. There will be no hiding what it does when they find it, same with the one on your back. That’s the reason the Nidaime didn’t press you on the lie; what was the point when sealmasters were coming that would say what it was anyway?” Kurama explained.

“Wait,” she cut in. “If they can find out what the seal’s do, how do we keep them from telling Hashirama and Tobirama? You said they’d find out eventually, but it seems too soon.”

Kurama’s tails whipped behind him. “Everything I said was basically guesswork. By the way they reacted to you in the future, they knew you were from there, but none of them said anything to give clues about when they find out or how or how long you stayed here. They could find out in a week, or months. Though I’m leaning towards a week,” he added, an exasperated look tossed in her direction.

Naruko ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “If Hashirama and Tobirama find out I’m from the future eventually, why are we even bothering with this story?”

Kurama breathed in slowly. “How would you react if someone you found in the woods told you they were from the future?” Naruko paused to think that over, then sheepishly scratched her cheek and avoiding Kurama’s gaze. “ _Yeah._ We need to gain their trust first so they have reason to believe you and help you. You may be lying to them now, but they would understand the necessity when they find out the truth.”

Naruko sighed, letting her head fall into her hands. “What do I do when the Uzumaki know? How can I convince them to listen?”

Kurama hummed (which sounded like a purr, not that she’d say _that_ to his face) as he thought. “I’m going to show myself, so you need to let me take over when I tell you. I can explain what I know of the seal to them. Seals aren’t really my forte,” he admitted grudgingly. “I can tell what they do after some study but I never really bothered to understand how they worked. Try to get them to examine the seals privately, out of sight of the Senju to at least give us some idea of how long we’ll be here.”

Naruko nodded, tremendously relieved that she had become friends with Kurama. Otherwise she’d be blundering around, lost and confused and completely wrecking the past. Instead, she has him to help her figure out what to do, even though it was mostly reacting to what was happening to them.

She was tempted to express her gratitude, his reactions to being thanked were always funny, but she really wanted to wake up so she left her mindscape with nothing more than a grateful smile at Kurama.

OooO

This time, waking up was slow. She gradually came out of sleep one sense at a time. First feeling the futon under her, the blanket on top of her, and the lingering heat from the fire before she heard the soft sounds of the fire crackling and Tobirama breathing. She opened her eyes slowly, the dim light letting her know it was near dawn, when she usually woke up. 

Without moving her body she searched out Tobirama to see he had barely moved from his place against the wall, the pillow still behind his shoulders. His chin was tucked to his chest, eyes closed with his arms crossed, but she knew by his slightly uneven breathing that he was awake. If anything it seemed like he was in light meditation, resting his body and mind while still being aware of what was going on.

She stared at him openly, still in awe that this was really one of the Hokage in front of her. She thought back to yesterday and how dreamlike it still seemed that she was actually in this situation.

She had been disoriented when she had first woken up here and had forgotten her conversation with Kurama, only registering that she wasn’t where she last remembered and that someone was near her. 

She had opened her eyes and seen red eyes and that was that. She had panicked and bolted and only really remembered everything Kurama had said when she had seen Tobirama’s face. After that everything Kurama had said had come rushing back and she had been in a state of shock and awe, staring at the face that had been overlooking the village her whole life.

A stone carving was so much different than a flesh and blood person, or a reanimation, and she hadn’t spent much time near the reanimated Tobirama before she was sent back so she couldn’t help but stare at him now 

He had spiked silver hair similar to Kakashi-sensei’s and was pale like him too, making the red marks on his cheeks and chin stand out just like his red eyes did.

His eyes weren’t a blood red like the Sharringan, but more of a bright ruby. His face was narrow, emphasized by his slanted eyes, high cheekbones, pointed chin, and strong jaw. His face wasn’t as harsh as the monument made him out to be but it was still naturally serious. 

Hashirama (she had choked down a fangirl-ish squeal when she had seen him, two of her idols had been standing - actually alive - in front of her!) was much the same. He seemed much more lighthearted than his face and picture in the Hokage’s office made him look. Then again, the faces on the monument weren’t carved to look happy and gentle.

Like most shinobi she had seen, Tobirama was more lean, hard muscle than bulked up. She had heard Ino say it was called a swimmer’s or runner’s build, but also like most ninja, he was much stronger than he looked. She had been pressed up tightly against him in the awkward way he had caught and pinned her and she had felt that he was all hard muscle that had hardly strained with holding her still.

Being blunt, he was hot. While she was less focused on guys than most of the girls her age, that did not by any means mean she was unaware of them. She knew perfectly well that all her guy friends from the village, and quite a few from others, were gorgeous by most people’s standards. 

She knew Kakashi-sensei was quite a looker under the mask, and even with no eyebrows Gaara was good looking. Though she knew he was not in love with her no matter what Sakura said about their relationship. They were just close friends, practically siblings, and Gaara could be an overprotective bastard like most of the guys she knew. She felt for Temari, she really did.

Heck, once her hormones hit, she really looked at Itachi, feeling a lot less conflicted about finding him attractive when she learned the truth. And apparently being resurrected and knowing she knew the truth meant Itachi didn’t put up his masks, because looking back on her fight with him, he was pretty cool. Surprisingly sassy, but in a funny way when she looks back on it.

Back to Tobirama.

She had a deep admiration of him once she remembered that Kurama said he had invented the shadow clones. Without that jutsu pretty much her entire arsenal was taken out so she was incredibly thankful.

Ever since they talked yesterday and she got a feel for his personality, she was even more interested in him. He seemed a lot like Kakashi in terms of seriousness (when he was not being lazy or perverted) and she had a feeling that he was hiding a warm and passionate personality that she couldn’t see since they were practically strangers. The gentle way he was treating her now was a big clue that he wasn’t cold or cruel, even though that would have been the norm for this time.

She hoped to continue their little twenty questions thing. It was the best way to get a read on each other and she could find out more about the time period she was in and more importantly, what _not_ to do. She also really wanted to get to know Tobirama and Hashirama as more than harsh faces on the mountain and resurrected zombies.

Deciding to go ahead and move, although she knew that Tobirama probably knew she had been awake for awhile, she started to stretch languidly. She felt completely recovered, her body no longer sore from her hours of fighting and then the whole chakra draining seal. She slowly stretched her muscles, starting with her toes and slowly moving up to her fingers, arching her back until it popped before slumping to the ground with a moan.

She definitely felt better. Fighting the resurrected jinchuriki, then five of the biju, then Obito, Madara, and the Juubi all in a row with no breaks was pushing even her stamina and chakra.

She heard shifting and turned her head to see Tobirama looking at her with amusement in his eyes and a smile on his lips. She shrugged, pushing herself up. “I feel better. I was exhausted yesterday.”

Tobirama nodded his head, getting up himself. “You’ve been awake for awhile.”

She ducked her chin a bit, brushing her hair out with her fingers and braiding it back. “Yeah, I was thinking about some things.”

“What things?” he asked, going to the kitchen and getting ingredients out for food.

She paused, remembering what - or rather _who_ \- had been on her mind. She could feel herself blushing and turned her back on him, getting out her storage scrolls to seem like she was doing something else. 

She sucked at lying, a bluntly honest person by nature, so she did what Kurama told her and told part of the truth. “You and Hashirama mostly. And what will happen after the Uzumaki come.”

Tobirama turned to her with a gentle smile. “Nothing will happen to you right now, even if they can’t do anything to help you. You are under the protection of my clan and we won’t turn you away because of whatever may happen.”

Naruko’s stomach twisted. This was why she sucked at lying. When people believed her lies and than acted so nice because of them, the guilt tore at her until she revealed the truth.

‘ _ **Not yet,**_ ’ Kurama reminded her. **‘ _Change the subject. Say that you know they are protecting you to keep you from other clans. Do not say anything until after I’ve talked to the Uzumaki_.’ **

Naruko resisted the urge to nod. “I know you don’t want the other clans to get me and be able to use me. That’s the main reason why you won’t turn me away.” There. If that didn’t make the conversation tense enough for him to change the subject, then she didn’t know what would.

She saw Tobirama pause half-way in the act of pulling down a plate. He only did so for a few seconds before finishing his task and closing the cabinet to turn and face her. His face was serious, the same expression he had had through most of her interrogation. “That is true. We don’t want you falling into the hands of our enemies and let them gain control of your power. I won’t lie and say that if it comes down to it, we won’t do _whatever_ it takes to prevent that.”

Tobirama paused, mouth open like he was going to say something else but he stopped himself and turned back to the light breakfast he was making.

Not knowing how to respond to that, she stayed silent. She wondered what else he was going to say for the rest of the morning.

Most of said morning was spent in silence after Tobirama’s statement, neither knowing what to say to break the ice again. They ate in silence, cleaned up in silence, and spent a few hours doing random little tasks in silence. If they did talk, it was no more than a basic question with monosyllabic answers. 

Naruko spent most of the time talking with Kurama or worrying about her friends. Tobirama seemed equally as lost in his thoughts, though she couldn’t guess what they were about.

Around noon she felt like she was going to explode. She was never able to sit in silence, doing nothing for hours on end. Already her leg was bouncing and her fingers were tapping and she knew she would snap soon. She had recovered her energy and she felt like she would go crazy if she didn’t get up and _do_ something.

“Can we go outside?”

Tobirama actually jumped, surprised at her voice suddenly breaking the silence and he blinked, coming out of his thoughts and remembering what she asked. “Yeah, for a while, but if I tell you to go inside you must.”

Inwardly bristling at the restriction, but too anxious to care, she nodded, snatching her shoes up in her hand and walking to the door. Tobirama followed in silence, acting as her shadow.

Any annoyance towards the future Hokage was pushed aside as she stepped into the fresh air and warm sunlight. She hadn’t really paid attention to her surroundings yesterday but the cabin was in a nice secluded area, surrounded by large trees, and with a small creek running through it.

It was mid-October so there was a slight chill to the air and the leaves were starting to turn to the golden-red Fire Country often had. She didn’t even put on her shoes, dropping them by the door and going out into the warmest, sunniest spot she could find, enjoying the feel of the grass and dirt under her feet.

Ignoring Tobirama - she was aware of everything from where he was to how he was standing so not ignoring, but still _ignoring_ \- she plopped down on her back in a spot she found suitable. She closed her eyes and simply breathed, soaking up the sun and letting herself get lost in her memories.

She remembered one of the times in the academy, when she and Shikamaru had skipped class and he had shown her cloud gazing. She fell asleep more than she watched clouds but she remembered Shikamaru saying how she always curled up in the sun - or on him, much to his (fake) annoyance - or stretched out like cat.

A smile pulled at her lips at the memory. In their early academy days she and Shikamaru had been close, mainly because they always skipped class. Shikamaru had actually been the one to notice she had never been taught to read and had started teaching her. When he got too bored of it he had told Iruka-sensei and then he had taken over. She and Shikamaru had grown apart throughout the academy and even more after teams were assigned. It was only after the Chunin Exams that she had started hanging out with all the other’s.

Thoughts of the academy lead to thoughts of Iruka-sensei. She was tremendously grateful that he had stayed on Turtle Island. It was already hard enough to fight in the war with Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, and everyone else there risking their lives for her. If Iruka had been there and gotten killed in front of her she had no idea what she would have done. He was her big brother, her father, her teacher, and her friend and she loved him so much that she wondered if his death would have pushed her over the edge like Neji’s almost did.

Feeling her eyes sting and her throat close up she forced her thoughts away from him. His body in her arms flashed in her mind, a small smile on his face after he protected her and his seal disappearing. She pushed her palms into her eyes, taking a slow, shuddering breath as she tried to calm down. She hadn’t had time to deal with Neji’s death and just the thought of Iruka-sensei or anyone else dying while she was stuck here made her heart feel like it was being crushed mercilessly.

She felt a gentle thread of chakra send a rush of warmth through her and she did her best to send her appreciation to Kurama. When she felt in control again, she lowered her hands and looked towards Tobirama, remembering his presence.

Tobirama was sitting cross-legged a few feet from her, back turned thankfully. She was grateful that he had given her at least the illusion of privacy as her emotions overwhelmed her, but she hoped he didn’t ask about it. She didn’t know what to say if he did.

She sat up and started ripping up blades of grass, trying to calm her thoughts so she didn’t mess anything up. Having something small to do with her hands was one of the ways she calmed herself down before she learned meditation. She was aware of Tobirama turning around and watching her, but ignored him, trying her best to calm her mind. 

“Ne, Tobirama?” She asked nervously after ripping up the grass to tiny shreds. She turned her head to look at him.

He was looking at her already, a gentle, understanding look in his eyes. She smiled softly at him, knowing he wouldn’t ask her now. At his prompting nod, she continued.

“What can we do around here? I know we can’t really leave this place, but is there anything we can do that wouldn’t draw too much attention?”

Tobirama crossed his arms, something she noticed he had a tendency to do a lot. Both of them came to a silent agreement not to bring up what just happened. He shook his head in response to her question. “There’s not much, honestly. Your chakra’s sealed and though this area is remote, any flares of chakra would draw attention. I mostly come here to relax or work on developing jutsu.”

She pouted. “Can I go through my katas at least? I just want to _move._ ”

Tobirama nodded, getting to his feet. “That’s not a bad idea, I’ll join you.”

She was surprised, but she didn’t say anything in case he changed his mind. She got up and both of them positioned themselves far enough away to not get in each other’s way. For the next hour she mostly ignored him. She relished in the heat of the sun beating down, and the steady use of her muscles as she moved through form after form. It wasn’t enough to get her out of breath, but the exercise felt amazing and eased any remaining stiffness she had from her recovery. The repetitive motion also helped her calm her emotions and her mind.

When she finally decided to call it quits, she had worked up a light sweat and felt the most relaxed and centered since she had arrived here. When she didn’t see Tobirama standing in the open area with her she looked around and saw him sitting against the cabin wall in the shade, watching her. She hadn’t noticed that he had stopped, and had no idea how long he had been watching.

She reached back to her hair and pulled it over her shoulder to get the weight off her neck to help cool down. “How long were you watching?” She asked.

He shrugged. “Only a few minutes. What kind of taijutsu did you learn? I’ve never seen that kind of style.”

Naruko plopped to the ground beside him and settled against the wall. “It’s something Jiraiya helped me develope. Back when I was a kid, my taijutsu was pretty bad; it was basically brawling. My instincts and stamina are the main reason I won any physical fights.” Naruko grinned as she remembered her first taijutsu spar with jiraiya. He had been so horrified and was particularly gleeful when he practically beat the new style into her. “The first year I traveled with him, he actually took me to see some geisha to learn how to dance and balance properly. After I learned what he wanted, he worked with me and we developed a style that worked with my height and instincts.”

Tobirama looked surprised. “You learned how to dance from geisha?”

Naruko narrowed her eyes at him. He better not have anything against geisha, the women she had known there were some of the kindest people she had met on her training trip. “Yeah, I did.”

Tobirama seemed to have an idea of what she was thinking from her tone because he shook his head, raising a hand between them. “I don’t mean that in a negative way, I was just surprised. That’s a very unorthodox way to learn.”

She snorted, a smile at her lips. “You try moving even a little bit in those outfits. Jiraiya had us stay there until I could do their hardest dance in full costume and not stumble or have anything fall off. And let me tell you - those head pieces were _heavy._ When we left he kept saying those women had tortured some grace into me because everything about how I walked and fought had changed.” 

At her challenging glance he smiled and raised both hands in surrender. “I see your point, I won’t say another word. I would like to see it first hand though.”

Her brow furrowed. “First hand? What you want to spar with me? Isn’t that too risky?”

Tobirama pushed himself to his feet and brushed his legs off. “It should be fine as long as we stick to taijutsu, no weapons or chakra enhancements.”

She grinned, practically flying back to her feet. “As long as we understand that. And no going easy on me because I’m a girl! I’m stronger than I look,” she added, pointing at him warningly.

He smirked. “I know better than to underestimate an opponent, even a shrimp like you.”

Gaping, she wondered why now, of all times, his sense of humor decided to make an appearance. She then glared furiously at him, eyebrow twitching. If there was one sure-fire thing that would set off her temper it was commenting on her height. 

She was still the shortest among her friends! Kakashi-sensei would always prop his elbow on her head whenever they walked anywhere together and it annoyed her to no end. Why did male shinobi have to be so freaking tall?! Seriously, Sakura said something about the average height of guys when they were adults was six feet! Women were usually around five foot six but with her stunted growth from her childhood, she was at five foot four. She wasn’t short _per se_ , but she was shorter than most, especially among the people she hung out with, and she _loathed_ those two inches.

“It’s not my fault you’re such a giant,” she snapped at him, getting in a sparring stance.

Tobirama followed her lead, smirk never leaving his face. Naruko ignored Kurama’s mental eye roll, knowing she was being baited and falling for it hook, line, and sinker but not caring.

Once he was standing on his feet she charged, going at him immediately with a spin kick that he ducked effortlessly. Not deterred, she fell into the pattern of her own style of taijutsu. 

They quickly fell into a pattern in their sparring, losing track of time in the adrenaline rush that followed.

She was honestly grateful for the lessons in dancing. Her movements had been refined and she was able to combine what Jiraiya taught her with some acrobatics, so her style was fluid and fast, focused more on speed than power.

By the time the old pervert was done with her, her style was based on avoidance using evasive maneuvers instead of blocking, something that worked well with her smaller stature. Working with her lower center of gravity, they added rolls and other acrobaticas to allow her to get into and under her opponent's guard, and quickly get out of range after attacking them. The careful movements she learned from the dancing lessons helped her keep her balance and recover from takedowns. This kind of style relied on quick and unpredictable attacks (her specialty). Ero-sennin had told her that with her flexibility and agility, she was able to move and balance in ways that even he couldn’t predict very well. 

Because of this, she was able to go from kicking at Tobirama’s head to altering her trajectory by using his shoulders to flip over him. She lowered herself into a crouch and spun around him doing a leg sweep on the ground - that he jumped over, the jerk. If she had tried a move like that when she was a fresh genin she would have face planted in the dirt quite spectacularly.

She used what she learned to try and get inside Tobirama’s guard. She was able to dance around his own offensive attacks, and the closest she came to getting hit was a grazing blow at her hip, but she wasn’t able to land a single hit on him either. He was just as fast as her, if not faster, though he wasn’t as flexible. She was able to duck, flip, cartwheel, and fly around him but he was able to use her own momentum against her and had lightning fast reflexes.

‘ _ **Tobirama was the creator of your father’s Hirashin, of course he’s one of the fastest shinobi alive. Your father surpassed him but he improved on Tobirama’s design and idea.** ’ _Kurama commented, following the flow of her thoughts.

Unfortunately, the surprise from Kurama’s statement and his sudden intrusion into her thoughts caused her to trip and Tobirama was quick to utilize the opening. In a flash of blue and silver she was on her back with him crouched over her and an arm pressed to her throat.

Both of them were breathing a little heavier since they had been going at it for awhile, but they had barely broken a sweat because of the limitations of the spar.

Naruko groaned, holding her hands out palm up in a show of surrender. Tripping for no reason in the middle of a spar was embarrassing and it wasn’t like she could tell him she had a constant stream of - usually snide - commentary on biju radio in her head.

Tobirama smiled and pushed himself up, holding out a hand for her to take. Doing so, she let him pull her to her feet. “You’re style is incredible, I’ve never seen something that was so hard to predict.”

“Jiraiya was relentless in that so I’d be able to defend myself,” she said with a fond, but sad smile.

Tobirama nodded in acknowledgement of her emotions and started to head back to the cabin and she followed, glad the air between them wasn’t tense any more. Still at much of a loss of what to do to pass the time, she figured continuing their questions from the night before wouldn’t hurt. “So, what is Hashirama like?”

He turned to her with a brow raised, holding the door open for her. “That’s kinda random.”

She shrugged, lacing her fingers behind her back after tossing her shoes inside. “Didn’t have any idea what to do for the rest of the day so I figured continuing asking questions was a way to pass the time.”

He dipped his head in acknowledgement. “Aa.”

She looked to him eagerly. She remembered when Edo-Hashirama had showed up and Madara came crashing down eager for a fight. She hadn’t been able to fight a grin as Hashirama had just pointed in the Uchiha’s direction, said “not now”, and blatantly ignored him. The look on Madara’s face had been priceless and she really wanted to know more about someone who could make a guy like Madara look like that. “So?”

Tobirama got two glasses of water from the tap and handed one to her as they sat at the table. “Well, he’s an idiot,” he said with all the fondness of a little brother. “He can be overbearing and a mother-hen. You’ll probably see it soon enough but he gets depressed at the slightest things and then he bounces back in minutes like nothing ever happened. He’s pretty easy-going most of the time though he knows when to take things seriously. He’s strong.” Tobirama said with a proud smile. “He’s the strongest man I know and he’s not afraid to stand up for what he thinks is right, even to family. He never gives up on the people he cares about and he has a way of making people listen and follow him.”

Tobirama didn’t add any more and she gestured for him to ask her something. “What was Jiraiya like? I understand if you don’t want to talk too much about him,” he added on, being considerate.

Naruko focused on all the best memories she could think of. “He was crazy,” she started with a grin. “He was a blatant pervert. I first met him when he was peeping on the woman’s bath. I screamed and watched as he got beat up.” She added with her trademark pranking grin. “He had no shame, going around calling himself a ‘Super Pervert’ but he was also one of the nicest men I knew. He was goofy most of the time but he was serious when the situation called for it and he was incredibly smart and good with seals. He gave me those scrolls,” she said, pointing in the direction of the futon where they were. “He was freakishly good at sneaking in places and gathering information on anyone or anything that might have been happening.”

Tobirama’s face was priceless at her description, especially when she talked about him being such an open pervert. Not knowing what else to say that would work with her cover she wrapped up. “He protected me with his life and he was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a father.”

Tobirama leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Ignoring some of his...quirks, he seemed like a good man. Your turn, now.”

Running out of ideas, she remembered Team Seven’s introduction. “Hobbies?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t really have time for much with all the fighting but I guess mine would be training and developing jutsu. Yours?”

Her pranking grin came back. “Pranks. I love, love, _love_ playing pranks on people.” She inwardly cackled at the nervous look on his face. She knows her pranking grin creeps people out but good to know it works on Hokage too. “I also like to train, meditate, and draw. When you live alone you do almost anything to stop being bored, drawing and gardening were two things I enjoyed a lot. Dislikes?”

Tobirama had edged slightly away from her at her grin and he didn’t come closer. “I guess all the fighting and anyone who poses a threat to my family. What are yours?”

She didn’t even have to think too much. “People who put others down to make themselves feel superior, harm those precious to me, or can’t look underneath the underneath.”

He cocked his head at her last statement. “Underneath the underneath? Where’d you hear something like that?”

Her eyes widened as her mind raced to find a way to explain her slip. How could she explain Kakashi-sensei? “...When Jiraiya and I were traveling we ran across a man, I’m guessing he was a retired shinobi or an orphan. We stuck with him awhile and he taught me things like that, said they were things his teacher taught him.”

Hopefully he wouldn’t dig in too much. 

“What do you mean by it?”

No such luck.

Mind racing to find something, she said the first thing that popped into her head. “I guess it’d be like my village. I wish they could have looked underneath the fact that I absorbed the chakra and see me instead of the fox reincarnated.”

“Makes sense,” he said. “Anything else this man taught you like that?”

She nodded, seeing no harm with saying the most important thing Kakashi-sensei had ever taught her. “What stuck with me the most was when he said ‘Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.’”

Both of his eyebrows shot into his bangs. “Not something you usually hear around here. What was his name?”

“Katake,” she blurted, meshing his first and last name in an attempt to not screw with anything. “We never said our last names.”

Tobirama nodded in understanding. “So, I guess it’s your turn.”

Grateful for the change in subject, she said the first basic questions she could think of. “Favorite season?”

“Autumn. I like how the leaves change.” He shrugged. “What about you?”

“Same. I love how the leaves look like fire, all the red’s, yellow’s, and orange’s, and sometimes I’d get to play in leaf piles with other kids.” She answered. 

_‘ **Ask him his age. It’ll help me know how far back we came.** ’ _ Kurama said quickly.

“How old are you?” She asked with no break in her voice. By the time she was back in the future she could be an actress with how good she was getting.

“Twenty-one. Hashirama’s twenty-three,” he added.

‘ _Tell me later,’_ she projected back to Kurama, needing her attention on the conversation. With how easily they can touch sensitive subjects she couldn’t afford for her attention to be split. “Anything else you want to know?”

“I don’t think I ever asked your favorite color.” He said, probably struggling for ideas like she was.

This one was always easy. “Orange.”

His eyes went to her orange jacket by her stuff. “So that’s why. Not very practical for a ninja.”

She scoffed. “Please, by the time I was ten I was able to paint all over buildings, in the open, without being seen by the villagers, all in a neon orange jumpsuit. My stealth and traps rock when I feel like it. And I don’t really like bright orange, like the fruit, I like sunset orange,” she tacked on a rare fact few people knew.

Tobirama edged away again. “Please don’t prank me. My brother you can go all out on.”

She laughed out loud at the blatant way he tossed his brother to the wolves. She hadn’t really gotten to prank anyone in a long time, it would feel good to find new targets. “No promises.”

Tobirama cringed, but there was a smile on his face as he enjoyed the light teasing. “Your turn.”

She shrugged, pushing up from the table. “I honestly can’t think of anything that wouldn’t touch sensitive subjects. What about you?”

He followed her lead, getting up and getting wood ready for when it got dark. “The same. I’m usually here alone or with Hashirama.”

Naruko flopped ungracefully on the futon. “I hate being interrogated. It’s so boring.”

A laugh burst from Tobirama, deep and loud. She stared at him, noticed how his whole face lit up when he was happy about something and she couldn’t stop the thought that he had a wonderful laugh. “You’re probably the first to complain that interrogation is boring.”

She rolled her eyes and turned her face away to keep him from seeing her blush. “Well it is. I’m not stupid, I know you’re supposed to use the time until the Uzumaki show to get information out of me but I’m honestly _bored.”_

“I could always torture you if you want,” he offered.

As a sign of her maturity she stuck out her tongue. “I’m used to moving around, training, or sparring. I hate having nothing to do, it drives me crazy faster than any torture ever would.”

“Good to know,” he said, smile still on his face. He then straightened a bit, like he suddenly realized something.”I should probably ask you what jutsu you know.”

Crap.

‘ _A little help here, Kurama!’_

_**‘Rasengan should be safe. You can do most of them without clones now, but not the Rasen-Shuriken because you can only use that safely with Sage Mode and you can’t use that. Henge, Kawarimi, and any wind techniques should be safe, but do not do clones in front of him.’**_ he said quickly, trying not to make her silence seem too suspicious.

Naruko relayed the techniques to Tobirama, explaining what a Rasengan was when he looked confused, but when she was done he actually seemed surprised.

“That’s all you know? How many fuuton jutsu do you know?” He asked.

Nervously rubbing the back of her neck, she shrugged. “Not any specific ones, really. I just focus on using my wind chakra and I can slash my arm through the arm and create an attack.”

Tobirama’s jaw dropped a little bit. “Just slashing your arm through the air?” He asked, mimicking the gesture. She nodded. “And you can create blasts of wind just by doing that?” Another nod.

“I’ve also used it with my taijutsu, extending my range or adding more force behind my attacks. I’ve also channeled my chakra through kunai and used them that way.” She explained.

“Normal kunai? Not special ones made for channeling nature affinities?” He pressed. When she nodded again he slumped back against the wall, eyes slightly wide. “Do you know how rare innate control of an affinity is?”

She cocked her head at the new term. “Innate control?”

He nodded. “Most shinobi train to learn multiple jutsu for their elemental affinity so that it’s more powerful, but even veteran shinobi have a hard time using jutsu for their element without hand signs. The most people are able to do is shorten the hand signs to just one to get the jutsu they want but you can use your wind techniques without any signs at all, just focusing it to parts of your body and then channeling it outwards. Is this making sense to you?”

She nodded slowly. “So basically, instead of using hand signs to focus my affinity, I’m just using it naturally by focusing on making it do what I want instead of a specific jutsu?”

He nodded. “Basically. It’s extremely rare for someone to have such innate knowledge of how to use their affinity that way. Some shinobi can do it after years of training with their affinity but the way you’ve explained it, you have never learned any specific jutsu for wind chakra. You just channel it to parts of you body and will it to do what you want.”

She crossed her arms as she thought. Any time she wanted to use her wind chakra outside of the Rasen-Shuriken, like in her fight with Obito, she had just flung her arm in front of her willing the wind to attack him. She honestly couldn’t think of one instance where she had actually used a wind jutsu or hand signs.

**‘ _Your control over your own chakra increased exponentially when you gained control over mine, even more so when we decided to work together. A month ago you couldn’t have formed cloaks around an entire army and then controlled the tails around individual people simultaneously. It only makes sense that your own control over your own chakra would improve.’_ ** Kurama commented. _**‘This is something you can work on to make it stronger, though also work on actually learning fuuton jutsu too.’**_

She resisted the urge to nod, aware of Tobirama watching her closely. “I never realized that’s what I was doing. Hey, why were you so surprised that that’s all I knew?”

“We’re constantly fighting against other clans so shinobi usually have a very large arsenal of attacks from taijustu, genjutsu, ninjustu, and kenjutsu. To hear that you just have the basics with a handful of offensive ninjutsu is shocking considering how much you traveled.” He explained.

“U-Uh,” she stuttered nervously. “I only know how to use kunai and shuriken and I suck at genjutsu. I can recognize them okay and dispel them alright, but I can’t cast them.”

Tobirama looked shocked, something that seemed to be becoming normal when he conversed with her. “Really? Not even a sword?”

She shook her head. “Never really had the money to get one and Jiraiya didn’t know how to use one either, at least that I knew of.” Maybe if she played her cards right, she could get him to teach her. After seeing Sasuke with his sword she honestly wanted to learn a little, though she wondered if it was the weapon for her. She had always been comfortable with kunai and she was always more of a hands on fighter. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to know how to use one if it ever came to it.

“How on Earth did you survive?” Tobirama asked incredulously. “You don’t have any armour other than mesh, almost no ninjutsu outside of the basics, and no knowledge of weapons outside of shuriken and kunai. Your taijutsu is incredible, but I’ve never seen someone so unprepared for this world before.”

‘ _You have no idea how right you are_ ,’ she thought. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about how long this chapter took, it fought me tooth and nail and I'm still not satisfied with it. Plus real life, the place I worked closed down with a weeks notice (we were told on a monday that the restaurant would be closed that sunday) so I'm out of a job, I had midterms, and my oldest dog is dying on top of everything. These past few months have been hell, but I hope you guys like this chapter regardless!

“You’re not very subtle, you know?”

A half-strangled yelp emanated from Naruko, such a startling noise that Tobirama glanced at her in concern. At the embarrassed flush creeping up her neck, amusement rose up in him again.

She planted her hands on her hips, refusing to acknowledge the embarrassing sound. “It’s not like I don’t know what you’re writing!”

That was true. Tobirama had flat out told Naruko that he was writing up a report about her, compiling all his observations and everything she had told him. He had even come to some new realizations about her because he had organized his thoughts on paper.

Like what she had just demonstrated. For all her training and the depth of her ideals, she was also very immature and childish.

“Just because you are what I’m writing about doesn’t give you permission to read it,” he explained calmly. This was his third day alone with her, and he liked to think he knew how to not give in to her...quirks.

He was honestly glad she was back to her mischievous self, yesterday’s questioning wasn’t easy on either of them.

He had decided to just be blunt and ask her for any details she could give him about the Kyuubi’s chakra in her body, how it affected her, what circumstances brought it out, any details she could give him. She knew she couldn’t not answer, but the only concession she asked for was to not give any names. That much he could do, so she told him about the instances the chakra took over.

He learned about the first time it happened, when she thought her friend had been killed in front of her and the chakra reacted to her rage, giving her the extra boost in speed and aggression to overwhelm her opponent, but that she had snapped out of it before delivering the killing blow.

She had shrugged in response when he had asked why she didn’t follow through. “I had met him the day before. I didn’t know who he was, but he did and didn’t kill me. Instead he asked me what I fought for and it was because of him that I found an answer. I fight to protect the people precious to me.”

Yesterday, Tobirama resigned himself to forever being surprised by her.

Today, Tobirama glanced at the note he had made beside that report.

_‘No reports or rumors about her anywhere - but telling the truth or accomplished actor and spy?’_

He really wanted Naruko to have been completely honest about everything. He didn’t want to think about what they would do to her if it turned out she was a spy because with the chakra inside her she would only be killed as a last resort. He could admit to himself that he had been incredibly foolish the past few days, easily growing attached to the girl, or just the mask she was presenting to them.

“Stop that,” he snapped at the girl, his thoughts affecting his tone. She was trying to peek over his shoulder at the scroll and he was being forced to hunch over the paper and try to block what he had written with his hand.

Naruko jerked back away from him, hands open and raised by her waist. “Okay, okay, calm down, I’ll stop.”

Tobirama watched her, carefully controlling his expression so his thoughts and feelings weren’t showing. Naruko backed away and sat down on the futon, curling her legs up to the side of her and pointedly not looking at him. He sighed, and turned his attention back to the report, reading over his notes and checking what he had written with what he remembered her telling him.

Aside from her first time utilizing the chakra, the next few times she only described in vague detail, but she had mostly been in control of herself. The pattern he quickly found was that it was easier to access in situations where her life was in danger or her emotions were too strong, specifically anger.

Tobirama grimaced at the obvious tells in his handwriting at the next part. His stroked were harsh and quick, showing the anger he felt and Hashirama knew how to read between the lines, but there was no point in rewriting everything just for that. 

She had told him about the first time the Kyuubi’s chakra physically manifested around her body. When she had been betrayed by the friend she had thought been killed the first time she accessed the fox’s chakra. She told him how he had been leaving to join an enemy and how she had run after him, how they had fought, and her friend would have killed her if not for the fox’s chakra. 

She didn’t mention anything else about the fight except that she had lost.

She continued on explaining that after that fight, it was alarmingly easy for her to use enough chakra to form the cloak instead of enough to enhance her body like she had at first. In an effort to test her control over it, Jiraiya had taken her to an isolated area and had her access even more.

The description she gave of the rage overwhelming her around three tails, and how she started to lose her recognition of the people around her, and then the damage that was wrought on her body at the fourth tail and how she lost all control was horrifying. 

She had told him that part with startling detachment, so contrasting to her character that he had known what happened had to have been traumatizing. He knew what she was doing, compartmentalizing, trying to disconnect herself emotionally from her memories and just tell the facts, otherwise she would lose control over her emotions.that day had been one of her worst. She had managed to say that Jiraiya had managed to stop her, but that it had almost killed him in the process.

She said that was the last time she had purposefully used the chakra, but that her emotional state made it easy to access in times of high stress.

The possibilities were alarming. He had focused on her chakra for that entire conversation and it hadn’t fluctuated in any way that meant she was lying.

She had asked him for a break after that, and the rest of yesterday had been spent mostly in silence, both lost in their thoughts. He had been writing down all the information she had given him in this scroll to review and give to his brother, and in the silence that had followed them after that conversation he added all the other observations about her he had noticed and other facts she had given him about her past.

First thing this morning he received a message from his brother saying it was time to go back and that he would stay with her until Mito arrived at the end of the week. Hashirama must have told Mito about the Kyuubi’s chakra and her possible heritage for her to come so quickly, and in person. For them to arrive from Uzushio that quickly they must be pushing themselves.

The message said he would arrive around noon, and he had pulled out the scroll to make sure he hadn’t left anything out and Naruko had decided to be nosy.

Tobirama rolled up the scroll when he was sure of everything he had written down. He cast a glance at Naruko to see that she had reclined her head back against the wall and her eyes were closed. He knew she wasn’t asleep but her breathing was slow and steady, so she must be doing some form of meditation or relaxing herself.

Naruko was officially the strangest woman he had ever met. When she was excited she was brash and loud and a motormouth, though she could also be very calm, quiet, and compassionate. She was completely different from the mostly demure woman he was used to, even among those trained as kunoichi. 

Most women were only trained in shinobi arts for self-defence when clashes between clans got too close to home so they could protect themselves and the clan. Even then, only a select few who showed promise were given further instruction; men were the ones trained and out fighting. Those few women given extra training were mostly in the field of seduction and gathering intelligence, never such a strong frontline fighter like Naruko.

Even the Uzumaki woman, while known for their tempers (which Naruko had in spades), weren’t up front fighters like her. They focused more on using seals in battle even with their special chakra’s, longevity, and resilience. The most accomplished woman he had met before Naruko was Mito, mostly because she was one of the best seal masters of her clan and could use them very effectively in battle to trap and weaken her opponents.

Naruko must have showed promise as a child for this Jiraiya to have trained her as a shinobi, not just a kunoichi. Not many people, if any, would take in and train an orphan from a civilian village in the shinobi arts. That training obviously paid off, as even with her lacking ninjutsu and kenjutsu, she was still alive. 

Her taijutsu was something incredible, though. If he hadn’t spent his life working on his speed she would have had him down in a matter of minutes. It was a true test of his reflexes and skill to avoid her crazy attacks, her style completely unpredictable. When he thought she was doing one move, she was doing another. In their first spar they probably would have continued for far longer if she hadn’t lost her balance.

She was an enigma he was quickly growing obsessed with figuring out. She paused randomly when doing menial tasks or hesitated too long when responding to him. It was almost as if she was listening to something only she could hear, something potentially a reality depending on the potency of the Kyuubi’s chakra, but he let her believe he didn’t notice, simply noting the observation in the scroll.

He wasn’t stupid, far from it. There were too many holes in her story, too many instances where mysterious, but apparently skilled shinobi lived alone and she was trained by them. All of whom are out of her reach or dead. He knew she wasn’t lying about Jiraiya being dead, as well as others in her life; the sorrow he saw when they went outside that first time was too real, too raw. The problem was she also never gave the names of the villages she traveled to in her stories, though she had apparently been all over the nations in her travels.

He also noticed that when her emotions got the better of her the faint presence of the fox’s chakra he was monitoring would react. Nothing too strange from what she has said about it reacting to strong emotions, but it was _how_ it was reacting that stumped him. It was so faint he wouldn’t have noticed the chakra if he hadn’t been monitoring it just for that purpose. The chakra wasn’t leaking out of her body like it wanted to escape, harm her, or control her, but it was reaching out _to_ her. And every time this happened she calmed down or changed the subject.

A quick flare of chakra startled both him and Naruko from their silence. Naruko looked to him for instructions but he waved her off. It was Hashirama’s way of letting him know he was on his way, almost here by the distance of the flare before his brother masked his chakra.

“It’s Hashirama,” he explained.

Naruko didn’t necessarily relax to the extent she had before, but she did settle back down. “Is he almost here then?”

He nodded. “Yes, he’ll be with you for the next few days until Mito arrives. I’ll come back with her.”

He had already explained this to her multiple times, but the repetition seemed to put her at ease so he didn’t mind.

Naruko nodded and pushed herself up and quickly vanished into the bathroom. He heard the faucet turn on and let her have the next few minutes to compose herself while he dressed himself back in his armour and prepared to leave.

A final flare of chakra went out and Naruko came out of the bathroom. Her hair was tied back in a braid, the shorter strands hanging around her face in damp curls. There wasn’t a shower or bath here, but with running water there was no issue for them to clean up a bit. He was usually never here for very long and if he wanted to get clean there was a spring about a mile off in the east.

“What is it about my brother that makes you so nervous?” he asked.

Naruko shrugged, but she was wringing her hands. “I don’t know, I’ve just heard rumors and gossip, stories really, about him and you, and I’m just nervous about being alone with him.”

Tobirama’s eyebrow’s shot up. “Hashirama?” The idea of someone being nervous around his brother off the battlefield was almost laughable. Then something occurred to him. “Were you nervous when you were left here alone with me?”

It was only because of his familiarity with Hashirama’s chakra that he felt his brother just outside the door pause, listening.

Naruko shrugged. “I was, yeah. I mean, Jiraiya told me he preferred for me to find you guys instead of the Uchiha, but he didn’t know anything about you but what we would overhear other clans talk about. You guys have quite the reputation among the other clans.”

He had to clarify. “The only thing that made you nervous were our reputations? Nothing else?”

Naruko’s brow furrowed and she cocked her head. “No, what else would there be?” He was honestly stunned into silence, unable to answer, unable to believe that she could be that naive, that innocent, at her age. Naruko’s eyes suddenly widened and she gasped. “Oh! _Oh!_ No, no, no, no, no! Oh God, no! I’m so sorry, never! I never thought you - either of you - would -! Oh, God, no!”

And curse his idiotic, meddlesome brother and his impeccable sense of timing, Hashirama chose this moment to knock lightly on the door and push it open. His face clearly expressed that he had been listening. “Am I interrupting anything?”

Naruko made a whimpering sound, face bright red, and buried her face in her hands. “Oh, _God._ ”

Tobirama shared the sentiment, even as he fought a blush from rising on his cheeks. He glared at his brother, who simply grinned and shrugged, amusement glimmering in his eyes. Inwardly, he was relieved that for some insane, idiotic reason, Naruko never believed that they would touch her. That was usually something all women had fears about when in a situation like her’s.

Neither he nor Naruko seemed willing or able to break the silence around them, so it fell to Hashirama. Tobirama gave his brother a pointed look, and Hashirama rolled his eyes. “Everything’s set back at the clan, I’ll be here until Mito arrives. When she gets here come back out and we’ll settle everything.”

“Two days, right?” He clarified. “She sure is coming fast, how much did you tell her?”

His brother shrugged, coming to sit at the table. “Enough.” 

Naruko pulled her face away from her hands, and though her face was still bright red and she couldn’t quite meet their eyes, she seemed to have calmed down.

Tobirama slid the scroll across the table to his brother as he stood up, aware of Naruko’s eyes anxiously tracking the movement. He could understand her curiosity about the scroll, her future depended on their response to what was written.

He paused at the door, looking back at Naruko. She was looking between him and Hashirama, the nervousness and embarrassment from earlier keeping her shy and quiet. He caught her eye and smiled reassuringly. “He’s harmless, trust me. I’ll be back in two days, so don’t get into any trouble.”

She relaxed and gave him a soft smile in return. “See you then.”

He left without seeing the look Hashirama gave to both of them at their exchange.

OooO

Hashirama stared at his brother’s back in shock until it was out of sight behind the door. Had Tobirama - his strict, rule-abiding, closed-off little brother - just reassured and comforted a practical stranger?

Tobirama had only ever been so open with his emotions when around him since their brothers died. Even then, to get a rare genuine smile from his brother was an effort. He was always so controlled, only showing anger in battle but never letting it control him. He knew his little brother loved him dearly, but outside of the occasional hug there was rarely any affection unless they were alone.

It was one of the reasons he alway picked up on his habit of getting depressed - often faking it - when around Tobirama. Though he often acted annoyed and snapped at him to get control of himself, he saw the amusement in his eyes and the smile pulling at his lips.

But in less than three days this girl had Tobirama _smiling._ And being _comforting!_

He knew that some familiarity with each other would arise from a few days spent alone, the conversation he walked in on was proof of some level of comfort.

He almost wanted to knock her out so he could read the contents of the scroll. He wanted to know if there were any clues in it that would help him understand his brother’s uncharacteristic behavior. He knew his brother like the back of his hand, he could read the emotions behind anything he wrote.

He turned his attention to Naruko, who even with Tobirama’s reassurance, still seemed uncomfortable around him, unsure how to approach. The lingering embarrassment from earlier couldn’t possibly be helping, no matter how amusing it had been to hear.

She noticed his gaze and met his stare. He was impressed that she held his gaze so evenly, even with the assessing way he was looking at her. He was told he could have a very intimidating stare.

She looked a lot better, sleep and rest having refreshed her and her injuries completely gone. She was certainly beautiful. What really made her stand out - aside from the whiskers, blonde hair, and stunning eyes - was her personality. Even though he only knew her from her story/interrogation, and didn’t know her personally, her personality lit her up. She was open and expressive of even the smallest emotions and her emotions dictated every move she made. It was that characteristic that appealed to him - and probably Tobirama - since most people of this time were cold unless with family.

He was also incredibly surprised, much like Tobirama had been, that she was so...he didn’t know whether to call it naive or innocent. The thought that he or Tobirama would force themselves on her had never even occurred to her. Most women lost that kind of innocence before they were twelve.

He had to admit he was impressed with her stubbornness and her innocence. She was still holding his gaze even though it was no doubt making her uncomfortable, such blatant staring. He finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and started laughing. Then he started laughing even harder at the look on her face.

It took him a few minutes to control himself, he kept looking back a Naruko and her bewildered expression, and the memory of the conversation with Tobirama kept setting him back off. When he was in enough control of himself he started removing his armour. It was a sign of trust, though he didn’t know if she realized it. He eyed the scroll, sitting harmlessly on the table, for all that the information inside it was so potentially dangerous.

“You can read it,” Naruko said softly, settling down on the futon.

He frowned. He honestly wanted to get to know her the normal way, but this was not a normal situation so he opened the scroll and started reading, keeping his senses on her though he doubted she’d make a move.

The scroll had some strange things on it. It ranged from her favorite color and food, to her thoughts on peace, hate, and her home village. He read the sections over Jiraiya and another figure, Katake, carefully and his brothers notes and thoughts. He had put a little note beside the fact that she apparently liked to prank. It said: _troublemaker as a child - possibly trying to get attention from being ignored, even if negative? Skills in stealth and trap-making from the description of some of them._

For someone with as bright a personality and presence as Naruko, he would not have pegged her for stealth, though if he listened at all to his little brother, neither was he.

He was really surprised to read Tobirama’s observations of her taijutsu and resolved to spar with her. If Tobirama, who had built on his speed his whole life had trouble landing a hit, he was excited. He was one of the most powerful shinobi of their age but he had never been as fast as Tobirama without utilizing Sage Mode.

Reading even further, he frowned, also finding it odd that Naruko had so few skills aside from her taijutsu - no kenjutsu, only kunai and shuriken, no genjutsu, not even any armour she could have scavenged or bought. He didn’t know what this ‘Rasengan’ and it’s versions were but for those to be her only real jutsu they must be something. He wanted a demonstration once he was able to fully unseal her chakra. The instinctual control of her wind element was definitely interesting too.

As he finished reading everything he ended up having to smother a grin in his fist. He knew exactly what the deal with his little brother was, able to read the emotions behind the words he had written. 

His little brother had a crush! 

Though he doubted Tobirama had realized it yet, his interest was clear in the undertone of the words.

At least, from what he had seen, the interest was mutual. While civilians never understand how shinobi can say they are in love and get married at ages younger than sixteen, they don’t understand the risks of shinobi life, and the rapid emotional maturity that shinobi experienced. Because of the possibility of a partner dying on any mission, it was completely common and no one even batted an eye. If anything, he would almost say that children raised as shinobi are raised to fall in love at a young age, never expecting to live long. The kind of quick attraction that had appeared between Naruko and his brother was normal.

Now he really hoped everything went well when Mito showed up. He would really love setting Naruko up with his brother since Kami knows Tobirama deserved some light in his life. And she would definitely be able to challenge his brother, her optimistic and warm personality would be the perfect balance to Tobirama’s realist - verging on pessimistic - and serious personality. Naruko would no doubt bring out his passionate side, even if they simply became and remained friends, that only Hashirama and their close relatives saw.

Hashirama had to resist rubbing his hands together theatrically. He was really looking forward to playing matchmaker. He honestly thought Tobirama would never find anyone outside of occasional one night stands and die a lonely bachelor. Looking at Naruko now, and what he knew of her, he realized that Tobirama’s personality, like his own, wasn’t suited to passive women, or the one’s looking to climb the social ladder.

They both preferred women with a mind of their own that were not afraid to speak it, a woman that could take care of herself if needed and wasn’t using them for their status, for all that those kinds of women were a rare find in this time. Yes, his engagement to Mito started out as a political arrangement, but their were real, true feelings between them now and he could confidently say that he enjoyed the challenge her stubborn nature presented.

He had to bite his cheek to stop from laughing again. Tobirama honestly had no idea what he was getting into. Naruko was without a doubt an Uzumaki and it appeared she had the famous temper and stubbornness in spades.

He huffed a small laugh, unable to contain it. It seemed only Uzumaki women had the personalities that he and his brother looked for to match them.

He rolled the scroll up and stowed it with his armour before facing Naruko. She had been watching him read in silence, waiting for him to finish. He wanted to get her to relax around him, not be this quiet and tense. “Since I know all that Tobirama does about you, feel free to ask me whatever you want.”

She eyed him for a moment but complied. “Favorite color?”

“Green.”

“Hobbies?”

He smiled, remembering the paragraph on her pranking hobby. He had to admit he was curious to see if she could get one over on Tobirama. He shrugged in response to her question, though. “I don’t really have a lot of time for hobbies with the arising conflicts and leading my clan but I like to go on walks.

She seemed to be starting to relax. She had loosened up from her tense seated position and was reclining against the wall. “What’s it like, leading a clan?”

He sighed, slouching in the chair a bit. “It’s...not easy. Honestly, if it weren’t for Tobirama I wouldn’t know half of the political stuff. It’s not really my strong suit,” he laughed. “It’s also stressful, knowing everyone is depending on me for something, whether it is protection or guidance. One mistake can result in people dying. It’s a lot of responsibility but it’s worth it to keep however many of them safe as I can.”

“Shinobi are those who endure for the sake of those we love and want to protect,” she said in response. “You bear it so they don’t have to.”

His eyes widened. He had realized much the same, but he had never found anyone else who had come to the realization on their own before. 

Tobirama had mentioned that she had moments where she seemed wise beyond her years, even in this time where children are taught to kill or die before they turn ten. It was understable that she would be incredibly empathetic due to her past, though the fact that she wasn’t jaded and angry was confusing. He nodded in acknowledgement. “And you endure the solitude and discrimination of holding the chakra of the Kyuubi.”

She nodded, bringing her knees up to her chest and grabbing her ankles. “What are the Uzumaki like?”

“To be honest, we are fairly certain you’re related to them.” Her head jerked up and she stared at him wide-eyed. He shrugged at the look on her face. “It’s not really considered a bloodline, but all Uzumaki have a distinct feel to their chakra, and some special abilities that vary among them, as well as longevity and incredible durability. Your story practically confirmed it for us. Not many people can handle a biju’s chakra, let alone the Kyuubi’s, but if anyone could it would be an Uzumaki. I’m guessing your mother or father was part of the clan.”

He saw no harm in letting her know this. He hoped she would be excited at the prospect of finding blood family and any positive ties she could have to them are leads they need to pursue. “That wasn’t what your question was, though. The Uzumaki Clan is very close-knit and family oriented. They are fiercely protective of their own. They focus on seals and using them in battle rather than having the most powerful techniques, though that doesn’t mean they can’t be dangerous. Most Uzumaki have red hair in some shade, it’s a pretty dominant gene, with the occasional exception,” He gestured at her, and she reached up to tug at her braid.

“Our friend Mito, is who is coming. The women of the clan have a bit of a reputation,” he added wryly, remembering the first time he encountered the famous temper. “They are famous for their tempers mostly, and their vicious nature when protecting those they care about. The Uzumaki Clan is one of the most open clans I have ever met.”

“What do you mean by open?” she asked. She had relaxed from her curled up position and was practically hanging off his every word.

He waved his hands around, gesturing at nothing in particular. “Most shinobi, when confronting enemies, or even an ally, keep their emotions hidden. The Uzumaki experience their emotions openly and strongly no matter the situation, though some can be more composed than others. The Senju and Uzumaki Clan’s have been close allies for a few years.”

She nodded, taking in everything. She was quiet for a few minutes and he let her be to gather her thoughts. “What was Tobirama like as a kid?” she eventually asked.

He wondered when she’d ask that. Tobirama had written that she had asked what it was like for him growing up with Hashirama as his brother so it would only be a matter of time until he was asked the same about Tobirama. It was a clever way to get a picture of someone if they were honest, asking other people’s view on them. Like Tobirama, he saw no harm in giving her general information, nothing truly dangerous or telling.

Still, he couldn’t help the smile on his face. It wasn’t often that he got to nag about Tobirama to anyone but Tobirama or Mito on the occasions he saw her. “He’s not much different actually. He was always a very serious kid, rarely did anything but train, or read, or learn. He’s supportive but strict. He’s stubborn and headstrong, though he usually thinks things out before he does anything.

“He believes the only way to have peace is for everyone to follow a set of rules, that it would only work if everyone did it. It’s one of the reasons he doesn’t believe in it, I think” he mused. “Trying to get all shinobi, people who work and live in the shadows, who betray and lie and steal for a living, to follow a set of rules isn’t really something I can see happening without some major event to give them a reason to listen.”

He noticed Naruko’s face twist into an expression he couldn’t identify since it was hidden before he could read it. It was somewhat curious that she’d react to something like that, though he continued as if he hadn’t seen anything. 

“He’s very loyal to those he cares about, and very protective. Even though he’s very serious, he’s actually a very passionate person, especially when it comes to something he cares about,” he finished.

Naruko cracked a smile at his description of Tobirama. There was definitely a mutual interest going on there, that much was obvious. Leaving them alone together for almost three days seemed to have sparked something.

She kept the rest of her questions simple, smart enough to know not to pry until they had confirmed her honesty. He liked her, she was much like him personality wise. Once she had gotten comfortable with him she opened up. She was a very open and honest person, to the point of being very straightforward in a world ruled by deception.

Later in the day, around early evening, he asked how she had avoided the fighting, since civilian villages could often end up as collateral damage no matter what methods were taken to avoid them.

Naruko grabbed her elbow with her right hand and shrugged, avoiding his eyes. “A side effect from the fox’s chakra is some sensory ability. The Kyuubi can feel hate and negative emotions most strongly and it is often drawn to those areas. I can feel the negative emotions of people around me and I would always stay clear of large areas of it. I figured if I could feel so much of it in one place, that was somewhere I should avoid.”

Hashirama remembered his surprise. “The Kyuubi can feel human emotions?”

Naruko snapped her gaze up and glared at him, and that was such a novelty for him off the battlefield that he was genuinely taken aback. “Why shouldn’t he? A dog has intelligence and emotions, and the biju aren’t just simple animals! For all that the fox and the others are called demons, I’ve met human’s more cruel and hateful than any of them.”

He didn’t miss that she called the fox ‘he.’ It was usually assumed that the bijuu were genderless, but when they aren’t referred to as ‘it’ people usually default to a male pronoun. What caught his attention was the familiarity in her tone.

Sensing a potential lead, he pressed. “Explain to me then, how you excuse the Kyuubi’s attacks on villages? Not just clan settlements, but civilian villages - villages like the one you grew up in,” he added pointedly, “have been attacked by him, and in some cases wiped out without cause. I would think that you, of all people, would hate him.”

Naruko fell silent and dropped her gaze. He heard her swallow.

He let her gather her thoughts, genuinely curious about what she thought about this, and how she would argue her point.

When she finally spoke, her voice was thick and rough, choked with her emotions. “The fox has gone about his entire life - decades and centuries - always viewed as a monster, a demon, or a tool to use or destroy by everyone he has come across. All he has felt for years has been anger and hate, pain and lonliness, every bad feeling a person can feel, multiplied by thousands.

I’ve been alone, and the pain I felt, everyone’s hate directed at me, would have driven me mad. I feel what the fox feels, and it’s all of that but amplified. It’s only because of the Ichiraku’s and Iruka that I didn’t become so full of hate and anger that I lashed out and attacked them.” The lingering light from the windows caused the trail of her tears to glisten as they ran freely down her face, her eyes squeezed shut. Naruko paused and rubbed furiously at her eyes. She took slow shaky breaths, trying to calm herself down and regain some composure. Hashirama found himself having to take deep breaths and fight his own tears.

When she spoke again, her voice was more steady. “I know you and Tobirama are curious about why I don’t hate humanity, why I’m not out getting revenge on the village I grew up in. The difference between me and the fox is I had people step in to save me, to show me the light, to show me happiness, in a world that had only shown me pain and darkness. And I grabbed that light with both hands and have refused to let it go. The Kyuubi isn’t a creature made up of hate, he has been driven mad by the hate of humanity that fills this world like a poison in a never ending cycle. He has been surrounded by it for so long that hate is all he can feel. ”

“It sounds like you want to help him,” Hashirama said quietly.

Naruko relaxed, her body stretching out from it’s curled position and reclining against the wall. “I do. It’s one of the reason’s I want the fighting and hate to stop. You know, I’ve had an idea,” Naruko started, picking at the threads on her pants. “The fox is drawn to areas where negative emotions have gathered and are the strongest, and that’s where he causes the most damage. I feel like he’s not trying to cause more but -”

“- destroy what he feels is a source of hate?” Hashirama finished.

“Yeah,” Naruko nodded. Her voice was more husky than earlier, rough from her emotional turmoil. “I think he’s trying to get rid of some of the hate that’s overwhelming him, but instead he’s only causing more.”

Naruko didn’t add on any more, instead falling into silence. Hashirama was silent as well, mind racing with new revelations and trying to sort through everything he had learned.

He had an idea, something that - and he hated to admit it - would endear her further onto his clan, but it was first and foremost a move he was making just for her sake.

“Naruko,” he called out, waiting until he had her attention. When her eyes met his he got up from the chair and sat down in front of her on the floor. “I will make this promise to you, that if any member of my clan comes across the fox, that they will leave him be, they won’t try to cause him harm. If we ever get word of another clan trying to find him to use him, I will personally get involved to make sure he remains free.” 

Halfway through his oath Naruko had started crying again, and by the end of it she flung herself at him. Hashirama wasn’t shocked by her movement, having read it in her body language, but - as his arms closed around her - he was surprised by her confidence in him enough to hug him, a practical stranger.

His surprise didn’t stop him from reciprocating, holding her tighter when he heard her repeated mutterings against his shoulder. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

This close to her, Hashirama knew it was not his imagination that he felt the Kyuubi’s chakra flare inside her, spreading gently through her body in an enveloping warmth.

He wondered if the fox’s chakra had a form of sentience. It was the only explanation for the way it reacted. Flare ups when her emotions were high were in line with her explanations to Tobirama, but the chakra was reacting more than what was considered a flare. There were confirmed and reliable reports of the fox’s last known sighting in Kumo, getting into a fight with some of the clans there.

If it was true, and the chakra had sentience when separated from its origin, it made Naruko even more of a potential threat, at risk of being consumed and taken over by the chakra.

Whatever new revelations he had had concerning the bijuu aside, they were still a very real threat.

He honestly didn’t think that would be a risk with her. He had felt the fox’s chakra before, and while what was inside her was definitely the Kyuubi’s chakra, it felt...lighter somehow, less vengeful and full of hate.

He had a few possible theories about that but he also found it hard to believe that not even a whisper of her existence wasn’t heard throughout the nations. Constantly traveling or not, hiding her abilities or not, she wasn’t someone people forgot, and civilians and shinobi could gossip like no other. Word of her should have spread.

If he and his brother weren’t actually in the situations they were in, seeing, touching and talking to her, he’d almost think she was a ghost.

While he had left Tobirama to watch her he had spread feelers out to his clan’s contacts all over the country, asking them to ask around about a young blond girl with whisker marks that may have passed through a village. He had gotten replies up until the day he left to take Tobirama’s place that all said no one had ever seen or heard of her. That was almost ten villages that were popular stops along the most travelled roads that hadn’t heard of her.

Of course, she could have worn a henge in populated locations. With features as recognizable as her’s, it would make sense. If she became a known entity and left a trail, it meant she could be tracked and captured.

Naruko had calmed down and she sheepishly pulled back, snapping him from his musings. “I’m so sorry, I don’t normally hug complete strangers and cry on them,” she said hoarsely. She pulled all the way away from him, sitting on her knees in front of him. She took a deep breath and abruptly slapped her cheeks, startling him.

He made an abortive move to grab her hands, thought it over real quick, then followed through. He pulled them away from her face and smiled gently. “I think, after you crying all over me, we can officially say we are no longer strangers, right?”

Naruko smiled back, a creeping flush rising on her cheeks. “Right.”

Hashirama let go of one of her hands and rolled to his feet. Naruko followed his lead with the hand he was still holding. “I’ll get some food started, have an early dinner. I’d say we can put off any further talk for a few hours, hmm?”

Any reply was cut off by a loud, rumbling growl. Naruko flushed, arms clamping down over his stomach. Hashirama laughed, a full-throated belly laugh that only had Naruko’s face turning an even deeper shade of red.

“I’ll get some food started, then.”

OooO

Hashirama grunted as Naruko’s heel slammed into his ribs, but she spun out of his reach before he could retaliate. Fortunately, he wasn’t slow - not as fast as Tobirama - but fast enough. Even in a spar restrained just to taijutsu, Hashirama had to give Naruko his full attention. 

This morning she had been bugging him to spar with her. Tobirama’s notes had mentioned she had an incredible amount of stamina, and after living a life on the road he could imagine she would get antsy, so he had agreed. He understood what Tobirama meant about her taijutsu now, and enjoyed the challenge she offered.

He noticed there was a rhythm to her style but the unpredictable nature of it made it difficult to get inside her guard or counter. But not impossible - he landed a hit on her shoulder, knocking her to the ground, but she rolled with her momentum and leapt back to her feet.

The fact that he was naturally physically stronger than her, along with his height and weight, were what had him winning their spar. He was getting her down and landing more hits than she was, and eventually, he got her down long enough that he could pin her, kneeling down on top of her, on knee pinning her arm and the rest of his weight on top of her.

“Ow, get off, you’re heavy!” She huffed at him, shifting in the minimal space she had to lessen his weight.

“Heavy? I’m barely putting any weight on you!” A little affronted, he shifted so even more of his weight was pinning her, grinning at the whooshing sound as he knocked the breath from her lungs.

She made a wheezing sound, batting ineffectually at his thigh with her free hand. He tormented her just a few minutes more, before finally shifting his weight off of her and sitting in the grass beside her gasping form.

Naruko quickly calmed her breathing, relaxing in the grass and sunlight instead of getting up. Her healing and stamina seemed on par, if not better than his own. With what she was capable of already, if she was properly trained she could easily match him, Tobirama, and Madara in battle.

“You good?” He asked, when the silence had stretched a few minutes.

She hummed in reply, a small nod her only movement. There was no other word to describe what she was doing other than basking in the warmth of the sun. He settled down in the grass when she showed no inclination to move.

He had to physically control himself when he felt nature chakra start swirling around them a while later. He stayed still and controlling his breathing, falling into a light meditation to figure out what he was feeling. The chakra was swirling in the air around them, specifically around Naruko, but she wasn’t absorbing any, or even showing any signs that she could feel it.

Hashirama shut off his perception, focusing back on Naruko. The fact that nature chakra was reacting to her either meant she had had some training to become a sage or it was a side effect of the fox’s chakra. The bijuu were made of chakra, and he had sensed nature chakra in the wake of one of their rampages. It would make sense if, by containing some of it, she could possible draw on senjutsu. Sages were rare, and the people who had the chakra capacity to become a sage even more so, so the second theory, while mostly guesswork, seemed the most plausible. It was something to mention to Tobirama, along with his findings from before he came back.

He had checked out the area where they found her and everywhere within a five mile radius and had found nothing. He thought he had sensed something in a small meadow, but nothing had come up after a thorough search. He had left a note to Tobirama so he could perform his own search.

It was suspicious that there were no signs of the fight she was supposedly in that left her wounded, drained, and unconscious. There were no bodies, not even any damaged trees around the area they found her. It should have been close by since they felt the surge of the Kyuubi’s chakra pretty much where they found her. She couldn’t have approached under it’s control because she would have been a beacon to any self-respecting shinobi in the area. No, it was the one surge of chakra and then nothing. And for a fight to exhaust her reserves? It would have been lengthy and destructive.

It left a big hole in her story. A missing battle ground wasn’t something that could be overlooked. He didn’t want to think the worst of Naruko, she was genuine and kind, but he had to consider that she might have been a plant. The Uchiha or Yamanaka clan’s could have found her and altered her mind and memories so she actually believed the story she told them. They were on neutral terms with the Yamanaka, but they have no strong ties like their arrangement with the Uzumaki that guarantees their inaction or loyalty. Financial income depends on missions, and other clans are rivals as long as they are separated.

There was no concerning activity in the nearby clans that gave any kind of impression that they were planning an attack, though the Uchiha were strangely quiet. Not necessarily a good thing, since the last he had seen of Madara the man was carrying away his wounded brother after Tobirama struck him. Word had spread that Izuna died from his wounds and Madara’s silence was worrying. 

His old friend had been obsessed with keeping Izuna safe and alive. Madara had been mostly reasonable with his brother alive and well; passionate in battle, but level headed. He was nervous what he would do now that his old friend’s anchor was gone.

He was determined that Naruko not be exposed to any dangerous information until Mito arrived to check her over. She had seals that could sense any alterations done to her that could allay his fears about her. If she passed, then he would no longer have to worry about having to put her down.

A small ripping sound caught his attention and he blinked, coming out of his thoughts. He looked down to see his hands had reacted to his thoughts, ripping up blades of grass as he considered what he didn’t want to do, but may end up having to.

He looked up at Naruko, and if he didn’t know any better, he would say she had fallen asleep. Pushing his dark thoughts back for another time, he grinned in childish glee and dropped a handful of grass on her face.

Naruko scrunched her face up, one eye opening cautiously to avoid any stray blades. She huffed out a breath to blow some of them off her face and glared at him balefully. He didn’t take her seriously, there was a similar glint of mischievousness he often saw in his own eyes shining in hers.

“Really?” She asked. “How old are you supposed to be?”

He rolled easily to his feet with a grin, tossing another handful of grass in her direction. “I’m twenty-three, I’ll have you know.”

Naruko wiped at her face to get rid of the grass and stood up. “Really? God, you’re _old._ ”

He slumped to the ground, moping.

Naruko’s grin quickly vanished and her hands fluttered nervously around him. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? I’m sorr - _omph!_ ”

Hashirama’s snapped himself out of it and tackled her to the ground, quickly instigating another round of sparring. Naruko flung insults at him as she shoved him off and slid into a stance.

Hashirama kept the grin on his face to hide his thoughts. He had one more day alone with her, sometime tomorrow, Mito would arrive and the final tests would be done. He didn’t want to imprison Naruko, or kill her, but there were too many holes in her story. 

He would harden his heart against her if he had to, and remember what she had told him yesterday about the fox, but he would do what had to be done to protect his clan.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruko had never been as nervous, or as bored, as she had been for the past week. She has never had to watch what she says every moment of every day, she has never had to twist the lies and truth together to the point where she didn’t know what she had told them.

She will be one of the first to admit that she was considered too emotional and honest for her profession. Lying didn’t come naturally to her, and she had always felt everything very strongly. She has always spoken her mind, and that usually works out for her.

The only reason she hadn’t dissolved into a puddle of guilt and told Hashirama the truth was Kurama would give her the equivalent of a mental smack or yell at her any time the guilt started to become too much. She didn’t like lying, especially to someone as nice as Hashirama had turned out to be. The only highlight she has had the past few days has also been her main source of anxiety.

Uzumaki Mito.

Kurama’s first jinchuriki, wife to the First Hokage, but - and this was the most important part - a living member of the Uzumaki Clan. And arriving in less than an hour with Tobirama.

Naruko had never given much thought to her name growing up. Asking Sarutobi-jiji about her name had given her the same results asking about her parents had. She had had family, but they had all died.

That had ended that.

She had never been curious to learn more about where her name came from, assuming her family was just another random, unremarkable shinobi family. Thinking back on the history classes she knew had been taught in the academy - that she never attended and was seriously regretting at this moment - there had probably been mention of the Uzumaki Clan.

If she got back, she was going to apologize to Iruka. Hell, his head would probably explode if she told him she regretted skipping school. 

She wasn’t just nervous about meeting another Uzumaki, though. Kurama had told her that there was no way to hide the true meaning behind both seals from a seal master, and their best hope was for Mito to hear them out. If she didn’t, if she told the others….well...Naruko wanted to believe the best in them, but she was still a stranger that appeared in the middle of war times. If nothing else, she would have to bank on the time travel thing to get out of any sticky situations. Even if she lost their trust today, she would have someone else able to prove that she was from the future.

Tobirama’s message sent early this morning said that Mito had arrived with a handful of other Uzumaki. Tobirama had left a shadow clone - and damn it she wanted to be able to use her clones again! - and met up with Mito outside the clan’s compound. The less people that realized Mito had come with no obvious reason or prior notice, the better. 

Hashirama had explained to her that spies who kept track of their movements were everywhere and he knew his and Tobirama’s actions the past week had to draw some attention. He had no doubts of his clanmates loyalty, but scouts for other clans were always on the edge of their borders. Anyone with eyes would take notice of the actions of the leaders of the Senju Clan.

First, for the both of them leave suddenly, only for Hashirama to return alone and then leave a few days later. Then Tobirama to shows up, a party from the Uzumaki Clan arrives with the heiress to the clan, and then they both leave without Hashirama returning. It wouldn’t take others long to realize that Hashirama and Tobirama had found something and start investigating.

Hashirama said that Tobirama and Mito would need to take all kinds of precautions so they weren’t seen or followed. The less people that knew about her right now the better, and while the measures he and Tobirama had taken leaving and coming to this place had kept her hidden, they would not take any chances. They would create false trails if anyone tried tracking them and they would only arrive when it was getting dark.

That brought her to this moment. Waiting was boring.

Naruko sighed again, having lost count of how many she had done. She flopped onto her back on the futon and crossed her ankles, arms flung wherever they willed.

Hashirama shifted against the wall by her head and sighed too, louder and much more dramatically than any she had done all day. “I guess my company’s that bad, huh?”

He had only done this a handful of times with her the past few days and she was a mix of exasperated and amused - she profusely apologized to...well everyone, if she had been anything like this - at this point. By now though, she simply stared at him, debating whether or not to try to out-sigh him. She shrugged, and taking enjoyment out of being the mature one for once, did not sigh. “At least we’ll no longer be bored, and if she clears me I can finally leave this place, right?”

He nodded, giving her a smile.

She tilted her head back to look at him. “So, what would happen after, if I’m cleared to go?’”

Hashirama grimaced. “Best case scenario, you are fully cleared, Mito confirms the chakra is no threat to you or us, and you come back to our clan for a probationary period. Once the probationary period is cleared you can be integrated into the clan.”

Naruko nodded. “And worst case? I want the truth, please.”

“Worst case?” Hashirama took a slow breath. “There are a few possibilities depending on what Mito finds.”

Naruko sat up and turned so she was sitting back on the wall beside him, knowing she needed to take his next few words very seriously.

Hashirama didn't look at her, instead staring into the rest of the cabin. “If she finds evidence of mental coercion from another clan pushing you to get close to us to gather information or take us out - and it's not reversible - we would have no choice but to take you out.”

 _ **‘Believe him,’**_ Kurama added. _**‘No matter how nice they seem, or how attached you are to them or they to you - they will kill you without hesitation. We are in the harshest period of shinobi history, they were raised as killers. You were raised in a time of peace and have never taken a life. They will not hold back.’**_

Naruko nodded slowly in response to them both. “And if they are reversible?”

“We would reverse it as best we can, your probationary period would be a lot longer of course, but if you prove you're trustworthy, you would eventually be integrated in the clan,” he said.

For once Naruko really didn’t know what to say in response. They passed the remaining time in a tense silence, only broken by the occasional awkward question. Neither of them had the urge to eat much, though Hashirama did get the fire started again.

W10hen the sun was setting both of them were watching the door anxiously, sitting at the table. Naruko’s leg was bouncing and Hashirama was tapping his fingers on the table’s surface as they waited for the sun to go down and Mito to arrive.

The sun had just disappeared over the horizon when they both felt Tobirama’s chakra flare twice, pause, and then flare again. Naruko didn’t know what the timed flares meant but assumed it was some kind of signal that they were close and weren’t followed. Hashirama flared his own chakra twice to let Tobirama know it was okay to come in and sensed them both land outside.

Hashirama stood from the table and Naruko followed his lead. She was wringing her hands as she waited for them to come inside. 

Tobirama didn’t bother to knock, just stepping inside and holding the door for Mito behind him. Tobirama’s eye immediately met her’s. There was something she couldn’t read in his gaze but he looked to Hashirama before she could get a fix on it. Tobirama looked back at her after some pointed glances at Hashirama and the corner of his mouth quirked up in a move that would have been more reassuring if it had reached his eyes. 

Tobirama went to stand by his brother and the next figure in the door caused her heart to start pounding.

Naruko had never seen a picture of Mito Uzumaki. She had the trademark red hair that Naruko still wished she had inherited.Her hair was in two buns with pins in them, with hair clips pinning her bankgs to the side. Her eyes were brown and there was a mark on her forehead just like Tsunade-baachan and Sakura-chan. She was wearing a simple green kimono with a blue obi, but Naruko knew with one look that Mito could kick her ass in it if she wanted.

Naruko couldn’t read anything in her eyes or face, but Mito was assessing her just like she was. After a minute, Mito stepped fully into the cabin and shut the door, leaving the only light to come from the fire and what lingered from outside. Mito smiled at her, and it met her eyes, so Naruko relaxed a bit and smiled shyly back.

Mito gestured at the table. “Let’s have a seat.” She waited until Naruko sat down first before dragging the other chair right next to her so the table was not between them. Hashirama and Tobirama stayed back against the wall. “No doubt you already know, but to have some form of decent human interaction, my name is Uzumaki Mito.”

Naruko cracked another smile. “Namikaze Naruko.”

Mito held out her hand, palm up. At Naruko’s confused look she explained. “I’m going to do a brief scan of you with my chakra. If there are any seals on your body, this will let me find them even if they can’t be seen.”

Naruko’s eyes widened and she paled a little. She had known Mito would find out pretty much everything, but she would find the time travel seal and Kurama’s seal right here in front of everyone. She prayed to every Kami she could think of that she would let her explain without them in here.

Naruko slowly placed her left hand in Mito’s. Mito kept a calming smile on her face at her hesitation, though the subtle way her eyes sharpened meant she caught the reaction, and Naruko hid a wince. Mito gently closed her other hand over Naruko’s and he could feel her gathering her chakra.

There was complete silence for a minute as Mito’s chakra searched over Naruko’s body. Naruko forcefully kept herself from looking at Tobirama or Hashirama when Mito frowned and her eyes widened. Her eyes snapped up to her and narrowed and Naruko pleaded as best she could with her eyes for privacy. Mito stared at her for a good minute before addressing the others. “I found two seals on her, but to see them she needs to take her shirt off.”

Hashirama nodded and grabbed Tobirama’s elbow and tugged him outside. “Call us when you’re done.”

Naruko breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the door shut behind Hashirama and Tobirama. Mito noticed and narrowed her eyes again.

“I sent them out, now show me the seals,” she ordered. Naruko complied, taking her shirt off but leaving her bra. She gathered the little chakra she could access and let Kurama’s seal appear on her stomach. Mito sucked in a breath, eyes running frantically over the seal as she started mumbling under her breath. Naruko caught the occasional phrase. “Not the original...been _opened_...and changed...must be _willing_ but _how?_ ” She mumbled under her breath.

Her pupil-less eyes flashed up to hers. “You need to explain why you have a seal that is containing the actual Kyuubi when I know that the beast is currently in Lightning.” 

Naruko nodded, amazed that Mito was able to gather so much information just from looking at the seal for a few minutes.

 **‘Naruko,’** Kurama prompted. Thankfully she hadn’t been silent too long, Mito was still a serious, but calm figure across from her. She and Kurama had talked over how to convince Mito to listen to them but first Naruko felt she should say something.

“All I ask is that you stay calm.”

Mito’s eyes narrowed more but she nodded. Naruko took a breath, closed her eyes, and let part of her mind fall back as Kurama moved forward. Kurama then pulled on her mind and when she opened her eyes again, only one was red. 

They had been brainstorming about what to do to convince Mito of the truth whenever she was asleep. Kurama had come up with this idea, knowing she might attack if he presented himself alone. With both of them, it would show Mito that they were working together while at the same time Kurama could hide his presence from Tobirama and Hashirama with her chakra. It had taken some very quick and clever uses of Sage Mode - Kurama’s idea - to keep Hashirama from noticing.

The only thing she hadn’t been ready for was the disorienting feeling of being in control of her body while also not being in control of her body. She and Kurama were mentally meshing together, trying to find a balance that would work. In the end, she gave him control of her body and they would alternate who spoke. 

Mito gasped and jerked back when her eyes opened, hand flying to a symbol on her sleeve but Kurama reached out and snatched her arm.

Naruko spoke, pushing any disorienting feelings to the back of her mind. It was weird seeing her body move but not consciously moving it. “This is why I asked you so stay calm. It’s a very unbelievable story that we have, but we need you to believe us.”

“Us?” she asked warily.

Naruko let Kurama take over speaking. **“Us.”** Mito’s arm jerked in surprise at the deep voice that spoke seemingly in her head, Naruko’s lips not moving, but the voice clearly heard. **“I am the Kyuubi and Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze is my host - or jinchuriki as it will come to be called.”**

Mito tugged lightly on her arm and Kurama let her go. “How is that possible? Last reports, you were somewhere in Lightning. And where did that seal come from? It’s base is Uzumaki style but it is incredibly complex, like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

 **“Everything I am going to tell you is the truth, and is spoken in the strictest confidence.”** His tone held a warning. **“Yes, I am in Lightning, but I am eventually sealed into a host. Naruko is the third to hold me.”**

“Eventually?” Mito asked, eyes going wide. “That’s impossible.”

“Before now, didn’t you believe it was impossible for a human to contain a biju? It had never been done before Kyuubi was sealed the first time and you don’t really know anything about what they are capable of,” Naruko said. Kurama had asked that she not reveal his name and she respected that. 

**“Though it is not by my doing that we are here.”** Kurama clarified. **“We are not from this time, as you have guessed. We were forcibly sent here during a war around one hundred years from now. We will not tell you any details, no names and no dates. If you need proof, look at the seal on her back.”**

Eyeing her body warily, Mito rose to her feet and walked around her. Naruko felt, through Kurama, the faint pressure of Mito’s nail tracing the seal on her shoulder. She analyzed it for maybe ten minutes before going back to her seat.

Mito was silent for awhile, interlacing her fingers in front of her face as she stared at them. With Kurama in control, none of her nervous ticks presented themselves, her body staying stone still. She eventually spoke. “I would think you were crazy if not for that seal. It is blatantly obvious for anyone that has enough knowledge of seals and time-space jutsu. And I know who created it, his chakra left a signature in the seal.” She raised a hand before they could say anything. “I will not ask how he is still alive or the circumstances surrounding how you got here. Do not say any names or give too many details about anything you know of the past, we don’t know what will happen.”

Mito pointed to the shoulder the seal was on. “The seal is similar to something Tobirama is almost done working on, actually. It created a rip through time and space, using _his_ chakra as an anchor.” Mito explained.

 **“I suspected as much, but wasn’t sure. I’ll need to dumb it down for her a little bit,”** Kurama said. **“Getting the information in is the hardest part, but once she has it she can understand and manipulate it pretty well.”**

Naruko furrowed her brows, both at Mito’s basic explanation and Kurama’s statement. “Did you just insult me and compliment me in the same sentence?” she asked him aloud.

Kurama didn’t answer that question. **“Remember I told you your father improved on Tobirama’s technique when it came to his Hiraishin? That’s what she’s talking about. The reason your father was so fast was because the seals he used literally ripped through this dimension and teleported him to where the seal was. Understand that much?”**

Naruko was aware of Mito watching her body with both of them closely and understood why Kurama was explaining this to her aloud. He was giving Mito a chance to see that they voluntarily cooperated with each other.

Focusing on Kurama’s explanation she turned everything he said over in her head. So if her father’s - and essentially Tobirama’s - jutsu that made them so fast was focused on time and space seals did that mean it was something similar to Kakashi’s Kamui? She asked as much to Kurama.

 **“Yes, actually.”** he sounded a little shocked at how easily she was grasping seals. **“That jutsu opens up a hole to another dimension entirely. What your father and Senju did was basically the same thing but much faster, almost instantaneous. And instead of another dimension, it just moved them through ours at high speeds.”**

“That makes sense. I remember Ero-Sennin talking about Tousan’s Hirashin and that he had special kunai with seals on them tossed across battlefields. So what he was doing was hopping through our dimension to the location of each seal, using the seals as a focus?” she asked for clarification.

 **“Yes, that’s it exactly. Now remember what he used to create the seal on your back?”** Kurama asked. He wanted to see if Naruko could actually figure out what Madara did on her own with only a little prompting.

She nodded, “His chakra. So, I get that the seal he must have used was doing the same thing as Hiraishin, but altered so it ripped through time, right? But it still would have needed a focus, something to anchor us so we didn’t just go to a random time.” Naruko was quiet, mumbling under her breath for a second before realizing. If she had been in control of her body she would have punched her hand. “He used his chakra to create the seal and used his chakra that’s in this time as the focus to send us to! That’s what happened right?”

Kurama nodded and even Mito looked a little impressed at how she was able to work her way through the workings of the seal with only a little prompting and no knowledge of seals outside the very basics. Sealing was in her blood and she showed a natural aptitude for it.

 **“Do you know how long we’ll be here? I’ve figured out that the seal acts as a timer but am unsure how to judge human chakra capacities,”** Kurama admitted, swallowing his pride for his and Naruko’s survival. 

Mito shook her head. “His chakra is already enormous at this time and there’s no telling what he’s done to himself in the future that could affect the rate it is used. I was able to find out that the seal hasn’t activated yet. It won’t until it comes in range of his chakra.” Mito paused, considering, then, “Why did you tell me the truth?”

 **“The kit here is horrible at telling lies.”** The implications of what Kurama called her sailed over Naruko’s head but Mito’s eyes widened. **“The Senju will know the truth soon and it will be easier to believe if we can actually explain what happened to us and have you confirm our story.”**

“And a little help backing our current story for those who can’t know,” Naruko added. She really wanted to wrap this conversation up, sharing her body and having to do switches back and forth so they could both talk was really uncomfortable. Sensing her thoughts, Kurama retreated, both her eyes turning back to blue Mito’s cue that he was done for now.

“Alright, I’ll help. Tobirama told me what he knew and suspected about you,” Mito admitted. Naruko nodded. Kurama had explained to her that they would share anything they all learned about her to each other because of the hostility of the time. “They suspect that either your mother or father was an Uzumaki due to your chakra.”

“My mother was,” Naruko said. Feeling a little weird just sitting in her bra she grabbed her shirt and put it back on. Mito no longer needed to look at her seals anyway.

Mito leaned forward, thinking. “Since you told them your parents died when you were born…” here she paused and Naruko nodded, telling her that statement was true, “we won’t be able to find out who they were but you are assuredly an Uzumaki. I can safely say that you are, in fact, securely holding the Kyuubi’s chakra and that there are no dangers on that end.”

Naruko remembered something. “Tobirama saw the seal on my back.”

“Yes,” she nodded. “He told me. Since the actual seal is on your stomach they don’t know about it. We can say that one is what’s holding the chakra as long as they don’t know. There are also no indications that your mind may have been tampered with and that you’re a spy. Once I give you the all clear, they will both let you out of here. I’ll say the seal on your back is from an attempt to take control of you to steal the power but it’s incomplete, while the other one is what contains it within you. The one on your back made the chakra unstable but I removed it.” Mito concentrated some of her chakra and then dispelled it quickly.

“What was that for?” Naruko asked.

“So Hashirama and Tobirama will believe I did do something about a seal.” Mito leaned back in her chair. Now that she knew Naruko could be trusted and was a future member of her clan, she was relaxed around her. “You could come back to the Uzushiogakure with me if you want. I can make a case about securing the seal and they’ll let you come.”

Naruko was torn. She wanted with all her heart to meet her ancestors and see her heritage. This was her chance to see it in its full glory, not the ruins it must be in her time. At the same time, she wanted and needed to stay near Tobirama and Hashirama so she knew what the hell was happening in the past. ‘ _Kurama?’_

_**‘...I’d stick with the Senju. We’ll be here for awhile, there will be time to see it, but they are central to the main events of the past. Better to be near them and know what is going on and when exactly in the past we are.’** _

Disappointed but understanding, she opened her mouth to give her answer when Tobirama and Hashirama burst through the door. Their expressions were urgent and she and Mito both jumped to their feet. 

Tobirama spoke quickly. “I left a clone with the clan and it dispelled to give me an update. The Uchiha - Madara in the lead - are mobilizing and headed our way.”

“You two stay here,” Hashirama said. His eyes were completely serious as he looked at Naruko, reminding her of when he first questioned her. “Mito will guard you here, we can not let Madara get his hands on you. Tobirama and I are going to confront him with our forces and we’ll send for you both when it’s over.”

Mito’s hand gripping her wrist kept Naruko from complaining. She wanted to go and help, worried by the grim expressions on their faces. They were talking like they would come back but the look in their eyes said they weren’t sure. She and Mito nodded.

Mito let go of her and stepped up to Hashirama. Naruko looked away to let them have a moment and Tobirama caught her eye. He had looked away from them too and both of them ended up looking at each other.

Suddenly determined she marched over to him. “I don’t know what the hell has you both so worried,” she whispered furiously, “but stay _alive._ ” Naruko wondered what the hell had gotten into her, she was basically ordering a practical stranger - the future _Nidaime,_ at that- to stay alive in a fight against Madara Uchiha when she knew he wouldn’t die until sometime during the second war.

That’s right, she knew some history. Only some, mind, and what she did know was what she learned in the academy about the Hokage. They were the only history lectures she listened to.

Naruko felt her ears burning but she kept eye contact. She wasn’t supposed to know when Tobirama died anyways, and it was normal to express worry when friends were headed to battle. “We may not have known each other long, but I’d like to think of you as my friend and I don’t want to lose a friend.”

Tobirama nodded, flashing a quick, but genuine smile. He lifted a warm hand and placed it on her arm. "Stay with Mito. I’ll do all I can but if something does go wrong, go with her to Uzushiogakure. You’ll be safe there.”

She grabbed the hand on her arm with her own, giving him a gentle squeeze and letting go. “I promise, and I always keep my word.”

They finished their exchange just as Mito and Hashirama did. Naruko nodded at Hashirama, both of them giving each other warm, but worried smiles. Mito walked over and placed her hands on Tobirama’s face. He obligingly leaned down and Mito kissed him on the cheek. Tobirama smiled softly at her when he straightened and his eyes met Naruko’s one last time before he turned to leave with Hashirama.

Once the door closed behind them Naruko started pacing. Mito watched her, curiously. “What’s wrong?”

“I hate sitting on the sidelines!” Naruko snarled. “I’m not the kind of person that sits by as other people fight, I want to go with them!”

“But you can’t,” Mito finished calmly.

“But I can’t,” she echoed, stopping in her tracks and dropping her shoulders, Multiple emotions were twisting her features; fear, helplessness, and anger the most prominent. “I know they won’t die, not for awhile,” Naruko missed Mito’s shoulders relaxing at her slip, “but that doesn’t mean I want to just leave them!”

“Naruko,” Mito began, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. “If you interfere -”

“That’s just it, Mito,” Naruko said desperately, turning to the older woman. “I’ve gone over everything I remember from my history classes and there’s not even a _mention_ of someone like me. Kyuubi didn’t know this would happen to me and he’s here in this time!”

Mito’s eyes widened. “There’s nothing?” When she shook her head angrily Mito took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “If you’re here - sent back by him of all people - you must have made an impact on the past. There’s no reason your actions or existence wouldn’t be recorded unless you asked them not to be.”

Naruko started pacing again, growling under her breath. “I hate this! I have no idea what I’m supposed to do, what I can say and not say, what I can interfere with that won’t change anything, or what I did in the first place that the Madara where I’m from remembers! Damn it, time travel is so confusing!”

When she finished her rant she threw herself to the floor on the futon and leaned back against the wall. Mito joined her after a minute. “I don’t know - can’t begin to imagine - what you’re going through right now and I don’t know what to say to try and help you.”

Naruko pulled her knees up to her chest and laid her chin on them, wrapping her arms around her legs. “Time travel sucks.”

Mito smiled humorlessly, bumping her shoulder against Naruko’s. “It seems to.”

Naruko growled under her breath. “I get that I’m stuck here until this seal times out, but I left during a major fight in a _war_. All my friends are back there alone, fighting, until I go back. I’ve come to like Tobirama and Hashirama, and even knowing they don’t die, I want to be out there watching their backs. With nothing recorded, I could have been with them in this fight, and any others that may come.”

Mito looked helplessly at the younger girl, wanting to comfort her but having no idea how to go about it. Eventually, she just pressed her shoulder against her’s, offering wordless support. “I wouldn’t worry too much about Tobirama and Hashirama. They’re some of the best shinobi out there.”

Naruko pulled her head out of her arms and met her eyes. There was a searching, intense light in her gaze. “You believe that, but you’re also worried for them. They’re worried too. Why? What’s so different about this fight against Madara, isn’t it kinda a regular thing, going to fight against him?”

Mito looked away, sighing. “It’s the first time Madara has been seen since his brother, Izuna, was killed by Tobirama. Izuna was Madara’s last brother and his anchor, for lack of a better word.”

“Anchor how?” Naruko asked, interested in learning about what made Madara the man she knew.

“Well, you know how Uchiha are predisposed to insanity? That insanity comes from the loss of love.”

Naruko waved her hands. “Wait, wait, wait! A loss of love?”

Mito nodded, a sad smile on her face. “Not many know this, but the Uchiha control their emotions so much because they feel so strongly compared to most people. When they love, they love with all that they are. They protect that love, and the light it brings fiercely. If they lose that love, that light, their own negative emotions overwhelm them and they become driven by senseless hate, a need for revenge that is never satisfied.”

Naruko rubbed her chest with a grimace. “I’ve experienced their hate. But how does this connect to Madara and the fight?”

Mito eyed the motion curiously, wondering about it, but continued on. “All of Madara’s brothers were killed when he was young. All but Izuna, and Madara has protected his younger brother viscously in the past. In the last battle, Tobirama fatally wounded him and a few days later word spread that he had died and Madara had vanished after leaving orders for his clan. Izuna was all the Madara had and everyone, even enemies, knew how much he cared for him.”

Naruko finally understood and her eyes widened. Without Izuna acting as his anchor to his sanity and heart, Madara was overcome by his hatred. Naruko knew Madara had the Eternal Mangekyou because he had his brother’s eyes. His absence must have been him learning to use it and now he had shown back up and engaged the Senju Clan in battle, powered by his hate and grief over his younger brother’s death. “And Tobirama killed him.”

The only reason Naruko wasn’t flying to her feet to chase after them was because Kurama suddenly forcibly took control of her legs. Instead of leaping to her feet, her legs remained in their bent position while her upper body sprawled over the floor. Mito jumped in shock, fingers going to the seal on her sleeve when she saw the one red eye, before forcibly making herself relax when she realized what had happened.

 _ **‘Calm down, you idiot!**_ ’ Kurama snapped in her head. _**‘You said yourself that you know they don’t die. This is the battle that united the Uchiha and Senju and started the creation of the village!’**_

Naruko settled down with a huff, an embarrassed flush coloring her cheeks. Yes, she had momentarily forgotten that they lived for another few years when she realized what had everyone so worried. With all of her frustration about what to do and what not to do, this was one thing she resolved herself to not interfere with.

“Sorry about that,” she said to Mito as Kurama let go of her legs. She was miffed that Kurama could take control so easily but she wasn’t gonna cage him up and block him out anymore. He often noticed things before she did and it would save time if he could take control and act on it rather than asking. With their situation, she’d need his help. 

Mito laughed a little weakly. “I completely understand. The only reason I’m so calm right now is because you let slip that they lived.”

Naruko wondered how Madara controlled his hate and darkness long enough to create the village. She knew that he stayed long enough for some of the other countries to start forming their own villages but she had no idea what the process of becoming a recognized shinobi village was like, or how long it took.

Both Naruko’s resolve and Mito’s calm wavered when two distinct chakra’s flared and grew, distant echoing sounds of explosions reaching them even where they were. Both woman automatically reached for each other’s hands, using each other to calm themselves.

At the feel of Madara’s chakra, her shoulder suddenly flared and throbbed and she hissed, clutching the shoulder the seal was on with her free hand. Mito was on her right where it was and the older woman pulled her shirt away from her back to look the seal.

“It’s activated, but there’s nothing to tell how long you’ll be here.” Mito paused for a second, thinking. “We’ll have to think of something to explain a way for you to contain the fox’s chakra, Hashirama will want to look at the seal and he’ll recognize that that’s not the purpose of this. I can layer seals around this to hide it from sight and create a fake one possible of containing the fox’s chakra for them to see if they ask.”

“Fine with me.” Naruko grunted feeling the chakra stored in the seal synch with her own before the throb lessoned to a faint ache. She had no idea what it was doing. “Kyuubi hid the seal I arrived in in a layer of his chakra and senjutsu - like a genjutsu. If we get a free moment alone, would it help you to see it?”

Mito nodded and then reached for her arm, pushing her sleeve up to reveal the chakra suppression seal. “There’s no reason for you to still have this so…” Mito bit her thumb and with a single stripe of her blood over the seal, some quick hand signs, and a flare of her chakra, the seal vanished.

Nodding in thanks, she relaxed more now that she had access to all her chakra. Both of them were relaxing against the wall as best they could. Though Tobirama and Hashirama had moved quickly to confront Madara as far away from them as they could, Hashirama and Madara themselves were still powerful enough to be felt by non-sensor types from quite a distance away.

When a faint explosion reached their ears and the ground trembled slightly, their bodies slowly tensed. The fight had begun, and Madara wasn’t holding back anything if they could feel the waves of chakra from where they were. Naruko started chanted the mantra _‘They live’_ over and over in her head in an effort to control herself.

“Tell me something, anything,” Mito suddenly said.

“Since it’s getting ready to happen, shinobi villages are going to be formed.” Naruko said, quickly picking the first topic that came to mind that wouldn’t give away anything. The foundation and early stages of all the shinobi villages was going to happen within the next year, so it’s nothing too drastic.

Mito’s jaw actually dropped a little as her face slackened in shock, wide eyes turning to look at her. “You mean Hashirama does it?”

Having talked with Hashirama the past few days and learning his dream for the future, she knew what Mito was talking about. “He helps create the village and gives the idea for the other countries to follow, but it was only the first step in a long process.”

Naruko never knew she could be so evasive but she figured by the end of her time here she’d be a master at it. She had to pick her words carefully while she was here so she didn’t give anything away. Yes, Hashirama made peace among the clans in Fire Country that united to form the village but there was still so much tension among the countries themselves.

“You said that Tobirama and Hashirama live, does that mean they retreat or they win?” Mito inquired.

“From what I understand, they win, and Hashirama manages to get through to Madara and the clan’s unite to start forming the village,” Naruko said, not bothering to evade a full answer since it was happening as they spoke.

Mito relaxed a little more, leaning back against the wall. “That’s reassuring, if a little hard to believe.”

“Uchiha can be stubborn, crazy bastards,” Naruko agreed.

A laugh bubbled out of Mito. “I can see woman aren’t put under such strict expectations in the future.”

Naruko cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

Mito shifted the folds of her kimono. “Women, even shinobi, are expected to be quiet, demure, and listen to men. We stay at home while the men go out and fight. Uzumaki are always an exception - we’re considered hot-blooded and a little crazy.” Both women shared a smile. “Even then, women from our clan are kept out of most fights. The only time women really fight is if an enemy gets to the clan’s base, then the women defend their home and families.”

“So the mild cursing I just did?”

“Very rare. Women aren’t expected to talk so crudely, though they are only punished for it depending on the clan.” Mito confirmed.

Naruko snorted derisively. “That’s definitely not how it is in my time. Of the five big shinobi villages that are formed, two of them, including mine, are lead by women. Some of the scariest and strongest people I know are women.”

Mito smiled. “It’s good to know women are considered equals.”

Naruko bobbed her head happily. “Yup, a lot of things have changed. No one really wears kimono anymore, though some kunoichi get variations of the style. Body armour like the men wear here is no longer used by anyone but samurai.”

Mito looked sceptical. “No armour? Do they not worry about getting killed?”

Naruko shrugged. “Of course they do, but the most armour shinobi wear in my time is modified to be lightweight and not as large or bulky. We have flak jackets, arm and leg guards, and mesh armour. There’s the random shinobi that wears more traditional armour depending on their abilities but it’s not all that common anymore.”

Mito still looked dubious but seemed to take her word for it. Another distant explosion set them off into silence once again. They had managed to mostly forget about the battle raging in the distance but the ever solid grip they had on each other’s hands never once wavered.

“Why haven’t you told Tobirama and Hashirama the truth? Both are smart and talented with seals, they would understand you’re from the future. And they’ve noticed things.” Mito asked after awhile.

Naruko sighed. “At first, it was because Kyuubi said this time was hostile and no one trusted outsiders. He didn’t know if I would be able to prove it before they killed me. At this point, I want to earn their full trust before I tell them the truth. I just hope they’ll understand why I lied.”

“You have multiple forms of proof, and I’ll back you. I think they may be upset about the lying but seeing as we’ve never experienced a time traveler, I’m pretty confident they won’t hold anything against you,” Mito said.

She felt relieved, even though it wasn’t a guarantee. Most of the relief was from finally telling someone the full truth, she hated lying like this. 

Naruko had no idea how much time had passed. It felt like hours but at the same time, the minutes seemed to crawl by. Oh, she wished she had paid attention more in the academy! Maybe there had been a mention of how long the fight lasted before Madara gave in but she didn’t pay attention and now she was stuck not knowing.

She felt like the fight wouldn’t be as long as it could have been. Yes, Madara was powered up with the Eternal Mangekyou and rage and grief fueled strength, but that kind of energy never lasted long no matter who you were. If Madara was at full functioning capacity, sound in mind and body, than she had no doubt the fight could go on for a full day easily. That wasn’t the case though, and she suspected the fight would be shorter because Madara would burn himself out.

She could feel the careless way Madara was using his chakra, even from where she was. He was being careful enough to keep using his sharingan, but wasn’t using the amount of chakra control she had witnessed in her time.

Shorter, but definitely not weaker. Madara was still crazy strong. This fight would last for awhile yet.

“Hey, Naruko?” Mito asked quietly. She hummed in response and Mito continued. “Are you prepared to face Madara after your experiences with him?”

Naruko froze. The thought of facing Madara in person had honestly not crossed her mind even with all the talk about him. She couldn’t rush in and attack him or ignore him entirely for no reason. If anything, those actions would only draw his attention to her.

She wasn’t prepared to face the man that had put her in this situation and killed so many people, her friends included, a man whose plan of world domination involved killing her! Whatever fondness she thought she saw in the future Madara had to have been a trick of the light. If he cared for her, he wouldn’t spend years on developing a plan that could only succeed with her death, now would he?

Fists clenching in reaction to her thoughts, Naruko fumed. She has never been good at controlling herself or her emotions. She honestly didn’t know how she would react to the Madara in this time until she was face to face with him, no amount of mental preparation would help her.

Naruko’s hands relaxed as something occurred to her. This wasn’t the Madara she knew. Obviously, she couldn’t change him, couldn’t stop him from becoming the man she knew but she was not the kind of person that judged people for actions they hadn’t even committed.

The Madara right now was simply a man grieving for his little brother. If she had to hazard a guess, she would almost think Madara was going on a kamikaze spree. He may not have had any intentions to walk away from this fight alive, just as long as he took out Tobirama and Hashirama and any other Senju he could before he was taken out.

It didn’t fit the mental picture she had of the version she knew, but this was before Madara had changed. The one in this time was still hopeful, otherwise he wouldn’t have called a truce and helped create the village.

Another wave of chakra reached them along with another explosion and both women sucked in a breath.

This was going to be a long wait.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. 2017 was a year from hell, I shut my hand in my car and broke three fingers, then my dad's health got really bad and I was taking him to two operations while juggling college classes, then I got an upper respiratory infection. I meant to have this up a month ago, but I got sick again, curse the stupid weather and college dorms. This chapter fought me tooth and nail, this is my fifth rewrite and I'm still not all that happy with it. I'm going to change it up a little, and try to do shorter chapters, but update more frequently. I'm still in college, and my writing classes come first, but this is still ongoing, I hope you stick with me!

 

 

Naruko waited in the courtyard of Hashirama and Tobirama’s personal house inside the Senju Compound. She had been dressed and ready for awhile now, but the brothers and Mito had gotten caught up with the Senju Clan Elders as they wrote up their last terms for an alliance with the Uchiha. From what she could feel in her limited ability to sense emotions, there was a lot of annoyance and frustration going around between all of them.

 

She leant back against the wall and watched the little pond in the courtyard and the lazy coy fish swimming in it as she waited, watching the light from the rising sun play on the water’s surface. As grateful as she had been for the change of scenery the past week, her chakra had had to be resealed since she was brought to the Senju Compound. Her reserves were too massive and she couldn’t conceal them very well, so this seal’s purpose wasn’t to restrict her chakra but to hide her presence from a clan of powerful shinobi. But she was still on a no-jutsu restriction. She also wasn’t allowed to leave the boundaries of the courtyard and the guest house she and Mito had been staying in. Luckily, since Mito was engaged to Hashirama, they had been put in the guest house that shared a courtyard with the main house instead of an isolated place, but she had been put under very strict orders by Tobirama that she could not go out into the compound.

 

The only difference between the guest house and the cabin was the size and the fact that she could both hear and feel dozens of other people, shinobi and civilian, around her. The courtyard shared by the guest house and main house was out of sight of the rest of the clan. It was attached to the property of the main house, but separated enough that the clansmen running through the house with Tobirama and Hashirama wouldn’t see her. With her chakra sealed, no one would be able to sense her.

 

Since she had been stuck in an actual house instead of a bare cabin, she had taken advantage of a proper bath as well as a way to wash her clothes. She had been running low since Kurama had had to hide the majority of her clothes, and she hadn’t been able to do more than a basic rinse and air dry at the cabin. Mito had let her borrow some clothes while her’s dried but laundry had taken all of three hours of the six days she had been here. The rest was spent confined to the guest house and courtyard.

 

Today was the day she was finally going to be allowed to leave and she honestly wasn’t looking forward to it, no matter how antsy she got. She was going to be face to face with Madara today, for the first time since she was sent back to this era.

 

Kurama had been drilling it into her that she couldn’t react negatively to him. In this time she hadn’t been fighting against him in a war, she would have no reason in their eyes to hate or fear him. She knew she couldn’t count on him to keep her calm, no matter how much he lectured her on it. He was more hot headed - especially when it came to Madara - than she was.

 

**_‘I’ve had centuries to learn patience and control. You’re an infant compared to me,’_ ** he growled at her.

 

_ ‘If I’m supposed to be able to focus enough to stick to our story I can’t have you growling in the back of my head,’  _ she snapped.  _ ‘And you can’t lash out at him, remember?’ _

 

Naruko felt an impression from Kurama, like a swat her on the back of her head, and wrinkled her nose at the strange feeling, rolling her shoulders to try and get rid of it. She felt his grudging agreement though, and dropped the subject.

 

A knock on the wall near her startled her and she jumped, her hand reaching for her missing weapons pouch out of habit as she turned. Hashirama was grinning at her, one hand still raised where he had hit the wood. Naruko was struck by how strong he was once again. He had huge and dense chakra, and he had snuck up on her like it was nothing without even hiding it.

 

“Ready to go?” he asked.

 

Naruko huffed at him. “Ready? I’ve been stuck waiting for  _ you! _ ”

 

She knew right as she said it that it was gonna happen again. Sure enough, Naruko swore she could see dark clouds over his head as his chin fell to his chest and his shoulders slumped. She lurched forward, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him along to get them going. He came in halting steps, mumbling apologies for making her wait by herself for so long.

 

He stopped in his tracks and Naruko was jerked to a stop when it felt like trying to pull a brick wall. He was back to acting normally, thank the Sage. He twisted the arm she was holding until he was holding her, pulling her in another direction. “This way - you can’t be seen yet, remember?”

 

When she was in step with him, Hashirama let her go. She grumbled, but followed “Of course I remember! It’s why I haven’t seen another human face other than Tobirama and Mito in over a week. And why you guys had to wait an extra day after the fight to sneak me here at night.”

 

Hashirama rubbed the back of his head and grimaced. “Sorry. With the tentative alliance and relocation, along with all the messengers coming and going security with your...situation is hard. Keeping you isolated is the safest thing for you until everything is stable again. Your presence has already made the negotiations harder.”

 

Naruko started weaving through trees as Hashirama led her behind the guest house and into the forest surrounding the compound. “How?”

 

Hashirama sighed. “We’re trying to keep you as hidden as possible, so we can’t involve another clan like the Nara to act as a neutral party where we can meet and discuss terms. That means we had to agree on a neutral location, but we also had to limit who could come as well. On our side, it’s just the two of us and Tobirama, while our cousin Toka stays here since she’s third in line to lead the clan. Mito is going by herself without the escorts she came with, for your sake, and as a representative of the Uzumaki Clan. Madara knows some about you, and he knows to only bring someone he absolutely trusts along with him since you’re one of the main points we’re talking about. Since his brother’s death, the only person I can think of is Hikaku - he was third in line while Izuna was alive but he could also be the one to stay behind to watch the clan while Madara brings someone else.”

 

Naruko grimaced. “I’m sorry I’m making this so much harder. I know this is what you’ve wanted for years.”

 

Hashirama paused, turning slightly in front of her to grin at her over his shoulder. “Don’t worry. Things will stabilize, we’ll get this village built, and whether you stay with us or go with Mito to Uzushio, hopefully you can grow to call it home.”

 

Naruko blinked, taken aback. His voice was soft and strong, no hesitation or doubt. She wondered if this was what all her friends meant when they said her simple confidence in her statements inspired people to believe in her. She could understand how this man joined together multiple clans to make the village - and why Madara was so fixated on him.

 

“I already talked to Mito, and while I want to see Uzushio eventually, for now I’d like to stay here with you.”

 

Hashirama grinned, white teeth flashing. “Great! We are running a little late though, so we should pick up the pace a little bit.”

 

Naruko growled at him, following as he lept up into the trees. “I’ve been waiting on you! And following you! If we’re late it’s your fault!”

 

His laughter was carried back to her as they ran. Naruko enjoyed working her muscles, falling easily into the familiar rhythm of leaping through the branches that every Konoha shinobi knew like the back of their hand. She couldn’t help but throw in some flips and tricks, enjoying the chance to stretch her legs. 

 

She almost stumbled when Hashirama did a trick swing a landed on the branch she was aiming for, but she managed to keep herself from faceplanting. Hashirama’s laughter fell back on her ears again and she grinned, a competitive edge curling her lips.

 

She leaped after him and they played in the branches. Trying to trip each other up, doing tricks and flips between the branches, and just generally showing off. It escalated when she flat out tried to shove him off a branch, and then they were trying to trip each other up and run at the same time. He had far more luck than she in physically moving her. Trying to move him was like trying to move a building, unless she used chakra. She found that out when she tried to tackle him and he barely budged, instead leaping to the next branch with her clinging to his back like a monkey. The armor and his hair made clinging on to him incredibly awkward, but she refused to let go. She could feel his shoulders shaking and could see the edge of a broad grin on his cheeks, and he grabbed her legs to secure her on his back. She was still surprised at how easily she seemed to click with Hashirama, acting like little kids and goofing around.

 

Without having to lead her, Hashirama put on a burst of chakra to propel them forward at a much faster pace, with the ease of a shinobi who grew up in these forests. Without Hashirama’s direct attention, her smile faded. She could feel Madara’s chakra now, she could feel his pain, grief, and rage. She kept reminding herself that Madara had just lost the last of his brothers, members of his clan abandoned him to surrender to the Senju after Izuna’s death, and those that remained largely feared him.

 

She felt Tobirama’s chakra, Mito’s, and two others she didn’t recognize. Madara and Tobirama’s chakra were as far from each other as they could be in the meeting place they were gathered in and Naruko felt her eye twitch. Whose bright idea was it to put those two near each other with only Mito to mediate between them? Naruko paused, considering the impression she’d gotten from Mito since meeting her. If nothing else, she could cow Tobirama, and she was just terrifying enough to possibly do the same to Madara too.

 

Hashirama started slowing down so she tapped his shoulder. He stopped at the next branch and let her down. She followed him again without speaking. For all that they had been joking around, the closer they got to Madara the more serious they became. Hashirama was more excited, but Naruko knew she was more anxious about seeing him.

 

She wasn’t ready when they finally reached them in a clearing. Kurama’s growl echoed in her head the second he came into sight, but he managed to keep his temper under control. Naruko tried her absolute hardest to keep her face under control, but she couldn’t stop her fists from clenching as she landed in front of them, eyes fixed on Madara. As she stared at him, her shoulders and fists actually started relaxing.

 

Madara had barely spared her a glance when she landed, giving her a once over before his black eyes fixated on Hashirama and stayed there. This gave her the opportunity to stare at him without his direct attention, something she didn’t have the option of in her time. He looked...old. And tired. There were lines under his eyes that reminded her of Itachi, and dark circles like bruises. His grief practically hung over him in a tangible cloud, but she could see a spark of hope, a light in his dark eyes as he stared at Hashirama.

Naruko kept a wary eye on Madara as Hashirama yelled out a pleased greeting to Madara and stepped forward and clapped him on the shoulder, ignoring the tensing of the other Uchiha that was standing behind Madara. She wandered over to where Tobirama was standing with Mito and an unfamiliar shinobi with brilliant red hair. 

 

Tobirama was tense, red eyes fixed on Madara and his brother. He acknowledged her with a quick glance and a small upturn of his lips, but they were all watching Madara. Hashirama had pulled him close and they were having a quick, whispered conversation, too faint to carry to their ears. Hashirama looked pleased and earnest, and Madara looked weary but hopeful. Kurama’s growl continued like an echo in her head as long as he was in her sight, and she tried her best to ignore him.

 

Naruko turned to the unfamiliar Uzumaki. She hadn’t been allowed to meet anyone else while she had been at the Senju Clan, and while a select few had been told about her, she had not met them. Mito had told her that he was a cousin of hers, and she trusted him to be her right hand while she negotiated on behalf of the Uzumaki, and with the ‘truth’ about what she carried. “Hi, I’m Namikaze Naruko.”

 

He smiled at her. He was taller than her and Mito, but didn’t reach the towering height of Hashirama or Tobirama, or even Madara. She was starting to have a theory that Uzumaki were just cursed to be short. His bright red hair was about shoulder length, pulled back in a short ponytail, a lock of bangs were braided on the right side and held by a small blue bead that looked to have delicate engraving work that she couldn’t see clearly. “I’m Uzumaki Jiro. I hear you’re a long lost relative.”

 

She nodded. “Yup. Seems that way.”

 

“Nice to meet you, little cousin,” he grinned, cocking his head.

 

“Naruko!” Hashirama called, interrupting whatever reply she may have had, waving her over even as he practically dragged Madara forward. “Let me officially introduce you. Madara, this is Namikaze Naruko, a recently discovered distant relation of the Uzumaki clan. Naruko, this is Uchiha Madara, Clan Head of the Uchiha.”

 

For the first time, Naruko had Madara’s direct attention. She knew he had been informed about the fox’s chakra in her body, and was expecting to be considered a potential threat, much like how Tobirama and Hashirama had reacted upon meeting her. Her fingers twisted nervously with the edge of her shirt before fisting anxiously at her sides as she met his gaze.

 

She reminded herself that she wasn’t supposed to know this Madara and forced herself to smile, bowing just a little at her waist as she remembered her mostly nonexistent manners. “Hi! Nice to meet you officially, Hashirama’s told me a lot about you.”

 

She heard a faint hum come from Madara, and his eyes swept her entire figure from head to toe. He tipped his head in acknowledgement of her greeting, but didn’t return it at first. “So you’re the girl I’ve heard so much about?”

 

She didn’t like his tone. She could feel her hackles rising, eyes narrowing at him. “Yes,” she said slowly, emphasizing her pronounciation and the hiss of the word.

 

“You don’t have red hair.”

 

_ Really? _ Of all the things he could comment on upon first meeting her, it’s her  _ hair _ ? Not the fact that she’s containing an biju’s chakra? “No, I don’t.”

 

Madara’s eyes flicked over to Mito and then back to her.  “And you’ve had no formal training? You were taught by a wandering shinobi with no clan, correct?”

 

Oh, she really didn’t like his tone now. It was almost dripping with the superiority Sasuke always spoke with when they were little. Her fists tightened even more, nails digged crescents into her palms as she fought with herself to not react like she did with Sasuke. “Yes.”

 

Madara gave her one more sweeping glance before turning to Hashirama. “Are you ready to begin?”

 

Naruko’s eyes practically popped out of her head. Did he just... _ dismiss _ her? That was all he was gonna ask her, all how he was going to react to her, that was it?! After everything he did to her? Sending her here, all the fighting, and  _ this is all? _

 

**_‘Calm down!’_ ** Kurama snapped at her. **_‘Would you rather have his full, undivided attention right now? Let him stay obsessed with Hashirama!’_ **

 

That cooled her temper quickly. She remembered the intensity with which Madara focused on her in her time. If she could have more time to get her feet under her, to build relationships, and even observe him without his focus, she could handle herself better when his attentions would eventually change.

 

She didn’t realize she had tuned out until a small wooden building was pushing its way out of the earth in front of them. It formed a lot more quickly, and a lot smoother than Yamato’s mokuton jutsu. Mito and Jiro both went quickly around the building, laying sealing tags that would ensure that they would be secure in the building and that anything discussed could not possibly be overheard.

 

This was the part she wasn’t looking forward to. Even though she was an Uzumaki, she wasn’t affiliated with the clan, so she was not actually allowed to be in the same room while they all discussed terms. She would even be left out of most of the discussion about her. They would let her know when she was suppose to do her demonstration to show her control, and then she was again going to be left out, not allowed to hear their discussion. Fortunately, she wouldn’t be stuck inside.

 

Hashirama made a wood clone after Mito and Jiro finished securing the structure. The clone would watch over her, but she was actually mostly free to hang out outside, as long as she didn’t stray too far. Tobirama’s senor abilities would also be a back up to keep track of where she was. It was again, another show of faith, another test she was going to pass, but she would enjoy her time outside regardless. She had at least earned enough trust and goodwill to have this opportunity to be outside by herself. There was also a separate room if she wanted to wait inside, but she had had enough of being cooped up inside to last a lifetime. 

 

“Naruko, we’ll call you in when we’re done for the day. We’ll try not to take too long,” Hashirama said. 

 

She nodded. She was a little distracted watching Tobirama and Madara. Without Hashirama to distract them, she could practically see the tension between them, even without looking directly at each other. Neither were moving toward the building, though both of them were lingering near it. She caught Mito’s eye, and the older woman rolled hers before she walked up next to  Tobirama and holding out her arm. She held back a snort at the look on Tobirama’s face as he stared down at Mito before he sighed, taking her arm and placing it in his elbow and leading her inside. She caught Jiro’s eye as he followed and he winked at her. With Tobirama inside, out of sight, Madara waved his clansman inside and leaned back against the wall by the door, watching them.

 

She met his eyes briefly, and couldn’t stop the reflexive curl of her lip. She was pissed about being dismissed by him, and everything he had done in her time, and no amount of empathy for his loss could stop her from being mad at him. She hadn’t been dismissed so easily since she was a fresh genin!

 

Madara actually looked shocked at her hostility, but then he glared at her, a hint of red flashing in his eyes. Naruko didn’t break eye contact at the silent threat, even when Kurama’s growl kicked up a notch. He was bluffing, she knew it. He wouldn’t actually do anything to her, especially here with Hashirama.  

 

Speaking of, a warm hand landed on her shoulder and she immediately hunched under it, even though he was barely applying any pressure. “I’ll meet you inside, Madara. I just need to have a quick word with Naruko here.”

 

Madara nodded and turned to go inside, but not before he cast her a dark look. Acting like the mature adult she was, she stuck her tongue out at him. Instead of getting annoyed like she expected, he looked more bemused. His clansman, dark brown hair pulled up into a ponytail with bangs hanging around his face, clasped a hand on Madara’s shoulder and tugged at him. Madara followed after a second of looking at her. She couldn’t read his face, and his chakra was still too heavily layered with grief for her to feel any other emotions from him. Kurama’s growl silenced in her head as soon as he was out of sight.

 

Hashirama cleared his throat, and she remembered that he was there. She expected him to be annoyed with her, since he had asked her to give Madara a chance, but instead he was smiling softly. She cocked her head. “What?”

 

He shook his head, still smiling, and looked at the cabin where Madara had already gone inside. “I haven’t seen him act like that since the battle.”

 

She huffed. “Act like what? A dismissive jerk?”

 

Hashirama laughed. “No, that’s normal for him. But you’ve gotten more emotion out of him than I’ve seen since his brother died. I think you distracted him with your childish behavior,” she shot him an incredulous glance, “and you don’t have any preconceived ideas about him. His standing with his clan is rocky.”

 

“He seemed happy about seeing you,” she said, frowning. She had heard about members of the Uchiha surrendering to the Senju out of fear of Madara. She also hid a grimace. She definitely was not a fan of Madara, but at least her acting skills were improving if Hashirama didn’t suspect anything.

 

“I know he is, in a way, but…” Hashirama trailed off and then sighed. “We made this dream to protect our family, our brothers. I don’t know if Madara will ever truly get over Izuna’s death. And whatever feelings he may have regarding me, as it stands, his brother is dead and mine…”

 

“Yours is alive. And killed his.”

 

Hashirama nodded. “I’m hoping when we get this village built, he will come to see it as his family, and that it will help him start to heal, but right now he’s almost drowning.”

 

“I know,” she whispered, grimacing. Even now, she could feel the thundercloud of his emotions. 

 

Hashirama raised an eyebrow. “Oh, right. You can feel negative emotions because of…” Hashirama made a gesture with his hands she assumed to mean Kurama.

 

Naruko nodded, and reached out to shove lightly at his shoulder. He didn’t even pretend that she could move him. “Don’t count yourself out. He actually felt a little better when we arrived and you talked to him. He cares for you on some level, and he is hopeful for this village of yours to work out.”

 

“That’s good to hear. This village is our first step to peace, and I want him to believe in it like we used to.” A weight seemed to lift off of his shoulders at her words. Naruko was more surprised that he believed her so easily.

 

“Well, you better get inside then, so this village can be built soon,” she said.

 

Hashirama nodded. “You’re going to spend some time out here right?”

 

“Yeah. I’ve had enough of being cooped up. I can explore a little bit right?”

 

Hashirama’s clone, that she had honestly forgotten about, came over. “Yeah, you can wander around a bit. There’s a river not too far, it’s where Madara and I met as kids. My clone will tell you when we’re done, and he’ll also tell you when you’ve gone out too far.”

 

She nodded, hearing the silent warning. She shoved him forward and he let her move him this time. “I get it. Now go inside and make peace. I promise I won’t go far.”

 

“I’ll try to keep this meeting from going too long,” he said.

 

The cabin door shut behind him with a definitive click and Naruko was left in silence, the only sound the ambient noise of birds and insects. Naruko took a deep breath and for a while, just basked in the sun. When she opened her eyes she was grinning, and she leaped into the trees with a cheer, Hashirama’s clone following at a distance. She did tricks and flips in the branches, enjoying the chance to run around mostly by herself and use her chakra. She stopped when she saw an older tree, thicker and taller than others around it. She stopped on a lower branch and stared up the trunk to the canopy of leave above her. She reached up with her hand to the closest branch, and slowly started to climb.

 

Hashirama’s clone stopped on the tree next to her. “What are you doing?”

 

“When’s the last time you climbed a tree without using chakra?” She grunted, feeling her foot slip. “Katake and Jiraiya both helped me with chakra control exercises, but both would always physically test themselves, too. Katake would tie a hand behind his back and climb trees or cliff’s, just to keep challenging himself.”

 

“Huh,” the clone said. Then he jumped onto her tree and walked up to the top with his chakra, tossing a griin down at her when she growled.

 

Naruko kept climbing, enjoying the challenge of finding strong enough branches and foot holds the higher up the tree she got. The first time she had seen Kakashi-sensei do this she had laughed, and done exactly what the clone did and walked past him with her chakra. She had leaned over the top of the cliff he was climbing and watched him climb with one hand. She hadn’t really understood why he was pushing himself until Kakashi had reached the top, smacked her in the head, and then challenged her to climb without chakra with both hands, while he would do it again with his hand still tied. Never able to resist a challenge, she had jumped to the bottom to begin the climb and then been soundly beaten. 

 

It was a challenge physically and mentally to climb without chakra, because she had to look around her to find her next grip, and if she misjudged, she would fall. Shinobi were in some ways, too dependent on their chakra that they neglected simple physical skills, used to using chakra to compensate for what they couldn’t do. She had started to join Kakashi on the occasional climb when they both had free time, and it was nice to spend some time with Kakashi. He would get playful and competitive sometimes when they would climb, and it was always challenging to go against him.

 

When she reached the top of the tree, she slapped at the clone’s dangling foot, where it reclined on a branch that shouldn’t have been able to hold his weight. She could feel his chakra in use, and considering he was a clone made of wood, he was cheating.

 

“Was that satisfying? I heard you slip a few times on the way up,” the clone said.

 

Naruko nodded, enjoying the stretch of exertion in her arms as she fought against gravity and the wind both tugging at her. She looked up at the sun, and by her rough estimate, guessed it to be a little before noon. She held on to what branches she could reach, suddenly reminded of the mission to wave and hanging on to the top of a tree like this with Sasuke. Mood sufficiently soured, she sighed, looking out at the tree tops around her. She could see glistening the glistening blue of the sun on the river Hashirama mentioned, winding through the trees.

 

She turned to look behind her and her breath caught in her chest. Towering behind her, through the trees, was the cliff that would become the Hokage Monument. She looked around herself with new eyes, realizing that she was actually home. Where she was was where the village would be, hopefully in just a few days, Konoha would be built right here. She knew they were meeting close to where the village would be built, but she hadn’t actually realized where she was until now.

 

Hashirama’s clone followed her gaze. “Madara and I would race to the top of it when we were young. This is where we want to build our village,” The clone eyed her warily. “You’re not going to try climbing that are you?”

 

She shook her head. “Not yet. I want to just sit here a bit.”

 

The fell into silence again, broken by Hashirama. “You know, technically, you’re not sitting on anything.”

 

“Shut it!”

 

* * *

  
  


The meeting was taking hours. Noon had come and gone. She had hopped down from the tree after awhile and made her way to the river, where she caught a fish for a lunch. Hashirama’s clone made her a fire since she didn’t know any Katon, and didn’t feel like making one. He gave her crap for it, especially after the whole tree-climbing thing, but she had food in her belly and she got to spend time outside doing what she wanted.

 

She had finally given in and gone to the cliff. She climbed it with chakra, but she had walked up the side almost leisurely, pausing whenever there was an outcropping of rock big enough for her to sit on to turn and stare out over the trees, imagining her Konoha. By the time she had reached the top, she was homesick and angry.

 

She was angry at Obito, at Madara, Hashirama, and at Tobirama from her time, the ones that knew her and sent her here, away from her friends. She longed to see Iruka, especially when she reached the area where the heads would be carved, and she remembered him scolding her while she cleaned off the paint. The clone watched her worriedly when she asked to spar, and she could tell the clone was holding back while she vented through taijutsu.

 

It had been awhile since the spar, and Naruko had calmed down, grateful that Hashirama’s clone hadn’t pressed her. She was sitting with her feet dangling over the edge, watching the sun as it started it’s descent as it got later. She nibbled on some berries she had found, enjoying the bursts of flavor and the juice, even as her fingers were stained red.

 

Hashirama’s clone was laying out flat on the ground behind her. After the spar, he had simply sat and watched her. She didn’t know how Hashirama’s wood clones worked, but her sudden mood swing would definitely be noted. She wouldn’t know how to explain it if they asked, only Mito could reasonably understand her right now.

 

Hashirama’s clone suddenly sat up. “They’ve finished. They’re coming here. Madara and myself are familiar enough with the area that if you lose control they are confident of containing you.”

 

“Oh.Okay.” She blinked. It was officially time.  _ ‘You ready Kurama?’ _

 

He shifted in her mind. She could practically see him getting to his feet and setting his shoulders.  **_‘Let’s get this done. The sooner you’re away from Madara, the better.’_ **

 

She felt their chakra as they all closed in on her location. “Do they want to do it up here or down there?”

 

There was a pause, and then the clone answered. “Meet them down there. If you lose control they can use the cliff.”

 

The clone dispelled and Naruko took a deep breath, mentally bracing herself. When she could feel that they were all waiting directly below her she looked down. She could just barely see the colors of their hair, Tobirama and Mito stood out the most. She called up her chakra and then pushed herself off the edge of the cliff, letting the wind make her hair fly up and free falling for a second like she always did as a kid. She could feel spikes from Tobirama and Hashirama, as she didn’t make any effort to slow her descent or catch herself on the cliff. 

 

She grinned and focused on forming wind chakra, creating a layer around her body, feeling herself slow down just enough as she fell that she could catch herself, rolling when she hit the ground to disperse her momentum. A gust of wind followed her as she landed, blasting the group in front of her hard enough that they all stumbled, something she knew they only did because they hadn’t been expecting it. This was a trick she had learned at Mount Myoboku, after one too many times falling from those damned spikes. She had always used her wind nature differently, and Tobirama finally gave her a name for it. 

 

She had realized she could affect the air flow around herself by coating her body in wind chakra. It felt like water walking to be honest. She matched her chakra to the clow of the water to walk on it, so she matched it the the air around her to slow or cushion her body in the air. She could slow herself down when she fell from heights almost to the point that she felt like she was simply floating, or send out a gust of air that would cushion her body from the landing. It was only after hearing from Tobirama that she realized how rare that kind of use must be.

 

She stood up, waving a hand in front of her face to disperse the dirt that had flown up around them. There were a few faint coughs from the others, and Naruko grimaced. She sent another gust of wind with a swipe of her arm, and the dirt cleared. All of them were standing in front of her, Tobirama and Madara at opposite ends from each other, with Mito and Hashirama between them and Jiro and the Uchiha she never got the name of standing just behind everybody. Hashirama and Madara’s hair was still flying wildly around them and she bit her lip to suppress her grin. By the glare Madara sent her as he shook out some dirt, she was failing.

 

“Sorry about that, I didn’t think that through.”

 

Hashirama was eyeing her. “I see what Tobirama meant now, with your wind nature.”

 

“I didn’t realize it was something so strange until after he explained it to me,” she shrugged, looking at the white haired Senju and her lips quirked again at the fact that his hair was more brown, until he shook his hand through it. Bright red eyes glared at her, but he looked impressed.

 

“It’s not strange, just rare,” Madara said.

 

She stiffened, turning back to face him. He had brushed most of the dirt off of himself and was eyeing her with his arms crossed over his chest. She could feel a different weight to his gaze, and wondered just what they had all talked about the past few hours.  _ ‘You were right, I’d rather not have his attention.’ _

 

**_‘Too late for that now, kit. That little display, plus what we’re getting ready to do - he won’t be forgetting or dismissing you anytime soon.’_ ** Kurama growled, sounding just as pleased as she felt about his statement.

 

“Well, I’m as ready for this as I can be. Are you all ready?” she asked.

 

Their body language all shifted. All of them but Mito tensed and braced their feet. She could feel their chakra rise just under the surface, ready to be called upon if they needed to stop her, only Mito knowing she was in full control. Mito came forward and Naruko gave her her arm. A single finger traced down the sealwork hiding her chakra signature and preventing her full access to her reserves. With a flare of Mito’s chakra, the seal flared red and then vanished.

 

She felt a change in Madara’s chakra, a rising wariness, and realized he hadn’t actually felt her chakra when they met before. He was finally feeling her reserves, and by the look on his face, was finally realizing she was a real potential threat. She looked in his eyes, not flinching even as they bled red and his sharingan formed, analyzing her chakra with his sharper vision.

 

_ ‘Time to start, Kurama.’ _


End file.
